Born February 1929, Jerry Goldsmith studied piano with Jacob Gimpel and composition, theory and counterpoint with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He also attended classes in film composition given by 'Miklos Rozsa' at the Univeristy of Southern California. In 1950, he was employed as a clerk typist in the music department at CBS. Here he was given his first embryonic assignments as a composer for radio shows such as 'Romance' and 'CBS Radio Workshop'. He wrote one score a week for these shows which were performed live on transmission. He stayed with CBS until 1960, having already scored Twilight Zone. He was hired by Revue Studios to score their Thriller series. It was here that he met the influential film composer Alfred Newman who hired Goldsmith to score the film Lonely Are the Brave, his first major feature film score. An experimentalist, Goldsmith constantly pushed forward the bounds of film music: Planet of the Apes included horns blown without mouthpieces and a bass clarinetist fingering the notes but not blowing. He is unafraid to use the wide variety of electronic sounds and instruments which are now available, although he does not use them for their own sake.

He rose rapidly to the top of his profession in the early to mid-sixties, with scores such as Freud, A Patch of Blue & The Sand Pebbles. In fact, he received Oscar nominations for all three and another in the sixties for Planet of the Apes. From then onwards his career and reputation was secure and he scored an astonishing variety of films during the next 30 years or so, from Patton to Star Trek: The Motion Picture and from Chinatown to The Boys from Brazil.

He received 17 Oscar nominations but won only once, for The Omen in 1977. He enjoyed giving concerts of his music and performed all over the world, notably in London, where he built up a strong relationship with The London Symphony Orchestra.

He died in July of 2004 after a long battle with cancer.


The Omen (1976): 25,000

Wore an ape mask when conducting the score for Planet of the Apes (1968). Frequently chose Alexander Courage as orchestrator for his scores. Regularly conducts concerts of his music in London, with the London Symphony Orchestra. Son, Aaron, with second wife, Carol Heather Goldsmith. Studied under Miklós Rózsa. His opening theme for The Mummy (1999) was used in the opening for the trailer of The Road to El Dorado (2000). Was offered the score for the first Superman (1978) film, which eventually went to John Williams. He later went on to score (and win acclaim for) Supergirl (1984) some six years later. First choice to compose Predator (1987), but was unavailable. He said during the DVD commentary track for Basic Instinct (1992) that it was the most complex film score he'd ever composed. When the first score for Chinatown (1974), composed by Phillip Lambro, was rejected by the studio, Goldsmith was hired to rewrite the film's music. He composed and recorded the new score in only three weeks, a now legendary accomplishment.