Elmer Bernstein

Elmer Bernstein (born April 4, 1922, New York, New York, U.S.—died August 18, 2004, Ojai, California, U.S.) was an American film composer who created the scores for more than 200 motion pictures during a career that spanned half a century and produced some of Hollywood’s most memorable film music. Bernstein fashioned the style of his music to reflect the mood and action of its film, and his scores were often widely acknowledged as more notable than the movies themselves. Although he garnered 14 Academy Award nominations—including those for the scores of The Man with the Golden Arm (1955), The Magnificent Seven (1960), To Kill a Mockingbird (1962), Trading Places (1983), and Far from Heaven (2002)—he won only once, for Thoroughly Modern Millie (1967), considered one of his lesser efforts.

Bernstein was headed for a career as a concert pianist, but during his World War II army service, he composed scores for military radio broadcasts. In 1950 he began writing music for films, and in 1952, with his score for Sudden Fear, he demonstrated the drama and originality that would distinguish his works. Although his support for left-wing causes hindered his career somewhat during the early 1950s, Bernstein continued to get work, and in the mid-’50s he established his reputation with the groundbreaking jazz-infused score for The Man with the Golden Arm and proved his versatility with the stirring music for The Ten Commandments (1956).

Bernstein’s later notable scores included those for Sweet Smell of Success (1957), Some Came Running (1958), Walk on the Wild Side (1962), Animal House (1978), Airplane! (1980), Ghostbusters (1984), and My Left Foot (1989). He also composed works for symphony orchestras and scores for television programs and the documentary The Making of the President 1960 (1963), for which he won an Emmy Award.

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