Oscar-winning composer Elmer Bernstein died yesterday at the age of 82.
Bernstein died in his sleep at his home in Ojai, near Los Angeles. His publicist said Bernstein had been in failing health for some time.
Elmer Bernstein
The composer had scored such movie classics as The Ten Commandments, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, and True Grit
Bernstein was nominated for the Academy Award 14 times, most recently in 2002 for Far From Heaven. Oddly enough, his only win was for the 1967 film Thoroughly Modern Millie, one of his weaker works.
Among his more notable efforts were the scores for Some Came Running, Birdman of Alcatraz, The Great Escape, Hawaii, My Left Foot, A River Runs Through It, and The Gangs of New York. He also composed several works for symphony orchestras.
Considered a revolutionary by many in the business, Bernstein began film composing in 1950, a time when the field was dominated by the lush, symphonic scores of central European emigres such as Erich Korngold, Miklas Rosza and Max Steiner.
Although Bernstein often employed full orchestras, as they did, he also experimented with other techniques, seeking to fit a film's music to the action occurring on the screen.
For The Man with the Golden Arm, for example, in which Frank Sinatra played a heroin-addicted jazz musician, he discarded the studio orchestra for a jazz ensemble.
"It's one thing to write music that reinforces a film, underscores it. . . . It's entirely another to write music that graces a film," director Martin Scorsese once said.
"That's what Elmer Bernstein does, and that, for me, is his greatest gift."
AP