Bernard Herrmann: Biography

• Overview
• Discography
• Biography
• Related Artists

• Arnold Bax
• Miklós Rózsa
• Alfred Newman
• Hans J. Salter
• Lehman Engel
• David Raksin
• Roy Webb

• Percy Grainger
• Charles Ives
• Max Steiner
• Erich Wolfgang Korngold

• Robert Folk
• Barry Adamson
• Alberto Iglesias
• George Fenton
• Howard Shore
• Michael Kamen
• Fibonaccis

• Orson Welles
• London Symphony Orchestra
• Leith Stevens
• Raymond Scott

Born:

Jun 29, 1911 in New York, NY

Died:

Dec 24, 1975 in Los Angeles, CA

Genres:

Music, Soundtracks, Movies and Film Soundtracks, Television Soundtracks, Classical Music

Decades Active:

1930's|1940's|1950's|1960's|1970's

Artistic Quality

High

Cultural Impact

High

Popularity

High

Ratings Guide

The dean of film composers, Bernard Herrmann was probably the most gifted musician ever to work in movies, with barely a note of music to his credit that is not worthwhile. A classically trained composer, Herrmann worked for Orson Welles' Mercury Theatre and the CBS radio network before going to Hollywood with Welles in 1940. His first two film scores, Citizen Kane and The Devil and Daniel Webster, were both nominated for Oscars in the same year (Webster won), and he was established from then on. Herrmann worked principally for 20th Century-Fox from the mid '40s until the end of the '50s, and did brilliant work on such movies as The Ghost and Mrs. Muir, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Beneath the 12-Mile Reef, and Journey to the Center of the Earth; in the '50s and '60s, Herrmann also contributed notably to the success of Alfred Hitchcock's films, and wrote inspired scores for early films by Brian De Palma and Martin Scorsese. He died the night he finished work on Taxi Driver.

- William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide