Born March 17, 1901 in New Haven, Connecticut, Alfred Newman was the eldest of ten children in a poor family. A child prodigy, he began studying music at the age of five, walking five miles each way every day to practice on a neighbor’s piano. He was able to supplement his family’s income by traveling the vaudeville circuit as “The Marvelous Boy Pianist”. By the age of twenty, he was conducting Broadway musicals composed by the likes of George Gershwin, Richard Rodgers and Jerome Kern. In 1930 he accompanied Irving Berlin to Hollywood to conduct Berlin’s score for Reaching for the Moon. He wrote his first of an eventual 200 film scores for Samuel Goldwyn’s production of 1931’s Street Scene.

Working for Daryl F. Zanuck, he composed the fanfare for Zanuck’s Twentieth Century Films which became the fanfare for the combined Twentieth Century-Fox in 1935. Continuing to compose and conduct scores for films, he invented what became known as the Newman System, a method of synchronizing the performances and recording of a musical score with a film which became the industry standard. In addition to composing film scores, he conducted the scores of not only his work, but that of other composers as well. He was said to bring out hidden aspects within others’ scores that the composers themselves didn’t realize were there. In 1938 Zanuck appointed him head of Fox’s music department, an executive positon he held until 1960 when he was succeeded by his brother Lionel. He was said to be happiest when conducting, not composing.

Newman wrote an expanded version of his fanfare for Cinemascope in 1953. His forty-five Oscar nominations from 1937’s The Hurricane and The Prisoner of Zenda through 1970’s Airport established him as the most nominated composer in Academy history until John Williams matched him in 2006 and subsequently succeeded him. His nine wins established him as the most award-winning composer, a record he still holds. He is the third most awarded individual in Oscar history behind Walt Disney with twenty-six wins and art director Cedric Gibbons with eleven. He is currently the third most nominated individual behind Disney and John Williams.

Seven of Newman’s Oscar wins were for adapting the scores of other composers; only those for The Song of Bernadette and Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing were for original compositions. In all, eleven of his nominations were for adaptations; thirty-two were for original scores and two were for original songs.

Alfred Newman died of emphysema on February 17, 1970 at 68 shortly after finishing his last work, the score for Ross Hunter’s Airport. His musical legacy is carried on by composer sons Thomas and David; daughter Maria; nephew Randy and great-nephew Joey Newman. Son Tim Newman is a director of music videos.

Producer Nick Redman called Newman “a true musical force, one that cannot in any sense be replaced.” No-one would disagree.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

HOW GREEN WAS MY VALLEY (1941), directed by John Ford

As Fox’s premier composer, Newman scored most of Ford’s films at Fox. He had earned a previous Oscar nomination for scoring Ford’s 1937 film The Hurricane for Goldwyn but had not been nominated for either 1939’s Young Mr. Lincoln or 1940’s The Grapes of Wrath at Fox despite having received nominations for six other films in those two years. This year he was nominated for both his jaunty score for Goldwyn’s Ball of Fire and for his magnificent score for Ford’s How Green Was My Valley, perhaps the best score ever written for a Ford film. He lost the Oscar to Bernard Herrmann for All That Money Can Buy AKA The Devil and Daniel Webster. Herrmann had received a second nomination this year as well for Citizen Kane.

THE SONG OF BERNADETTE (1943), Directed by Henry King

Newman’s first two Oscars had been for the musical adaptations, Alexander’s Ragtime Band and Tin Pan Alley. His third win for his rich score for The Song of Bernadette was the first of only two wins for original score out of his total of nine, the others having all gone to musical adaptations.

His beautiful score for The Song of Bernadette was the first of many scores for religious themed films that he was famous for. He topped this one twice, first with 1945’s The Keys of the Kingdom for which he was again nominated, and later with 1953’s The Robe for which he was unaccountably ignored for Oscar consideration by his fellow compsors..

THE ROBE (1953), directed by Henry Koster

1953 was a big year for Newman who not only wrote and conducted the score for The Robe, generally regarded as one of his finest, he also conducted the score for How to Marry a Millionaire for which he wrote additional music augmenting Cecil Mockridge’s basic score. Millionaire was the first film made in Cinemascope but the highly anticipated film of Lloyd C. Douglas’ best-selling story of the Christ, The Robe, was the first released. Newman also later conducted the orchestra assembled for the highly successful original soundtrack recording. All this and he still found time to expand the Twentieth-Century Fox fanfare he composed twenty years earlier.

THE KING AND I (1956), directed by Walter Lang

Newman adapted and conducted the scores for all of Rodgers & Hammerstein’s musicals made during his lifetime except Oklahoma! and The Sound of Music. His adaptations included both the 1945 and 1962 versions of State Fair as well as 1956’s Carousel and The King and I for which he won his eighth Oscar; 1958’s South Pacific and 1961’s Flower Drum Song.

His scoring of The King and I and South Pacific are generally considered the best of his Rodgers & Hammerstein’s work.

AIRPORT (1970), directed by George Seaton

The prolific composer died shortly after completing his bombastic score for Ross Hunter’s all-star near-disaster film. He did not live to see the accolades that came his way, including a Golden Globe nomination; a Grammy nomination for the recording of the score and his forty-fifth Oscar nomination.

He lost the Golden Globe and the Oscar, as expected, to Francis Lai for his lushly romantic score for Love Story. He lost the Grammy, also as expected, to John Lennon; Paul McCartney; George Harrison and Ringo Starr (The Beatles) for Let It Be.

ALFRED NEWMAN AND OSCAR

• The Hurricane (1937) – nominated Best Score
• The Prisoner of Zenda (1937) – nominated Best Score
• The Cowboy and the Lady (1938) – nominated Best Original Score
• Alexander’s Ragtime Band (1938) – Oscar – Best Scoring
• The Goldwyn Follies (1938) – nominated Best Scoring
• The Rains Came (1939) – nominated Best Original Score
• Wuthering Heights (1939) – nominated Best Original Score
• The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939) – nominated Best Scoring
• They Shall Have Music (1939) – nominated Best Scoring
• They Mark of Zorro (1940) – nominated Best Original Score
• Tin Pan Alley (1940) – Oscar – Best Score
• Ball of Fire (1941) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture
• How Green Was My Valley (1941) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture
• The Black Swan (1942) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• My Gal Sal (1942) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• The Song of Bernadette (1943) – Oscar – Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• Coney Island (1943) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• Wilson (1944) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• Irish Eyes Are Smiling (1944) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• The Keys of the Kingdom (1945) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• State Fair (1945) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• Centennial Summer (1946) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• Captain From Castile (1947) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• Mother Wore Tights (1947) – Oscar – Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• The Snake Pit (1948) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• When My Baby Smiles at Me (1948) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• Come to the Stable (1945) – nominated Best Original Song – “Through a Long and Sleepless Night”
• All About Eve (1950) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• David and Bathsheba (1951) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• On the Riviera (1951) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• With a Song in My Heart (19452 – Oscar – Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• Call Me Madam (1953) – Oscar – Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing (1955) – Oscar – Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• Daddy Long Legs (1955) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• Anastasia (1956) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• The King and I (1956) – Oscar – Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• South Pacific (1958) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• The Diary of Anne Frank (1959) – nominated Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture
• The Best of Everything (1959) – nominated Best Original Song – “The Best of Everything”
• Flower Drum Song (1961) – nominated Best Scoring of a Musical Picture
• How the West Was Won (1962) – nominated Best Score Substantially Original
• The Greatest Story Ever Told (1965) – nominated Best Score Substantially Original
• Camelot (1967) – Oscar – Best Score Adaptation or Treatment
• Airport (1970) – Best Original Score