Born April 18, 1907 in Budapest, Austria-Hungary (now Hungary) to Jewish parents, Miklos Rozsa’s father was a well-to-do industrialist and landowner, his mother was a pianist. He himself studied the violin from the age of five. In 1926 he began studying music composition at the Leipzig Conservatory. In 1929, his violin concerto was performed there. While living in Paris from 1931, his “Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song” and “Symphony and Serenade for Small Orchestra” were performed there. After settling in London in 1935, he composed the ballet, “Hungaria”. He then met fellow Hungarian Alexander Korda who hired him to write the score for 1937’s Knight Without Armor which began his career in films. He moved to Hollywood while working on the score for 1940’s The Thief of Bagdad and never left, becoming a U.S. citizen in 1946.

Rozsa received his first Oscar nomination for The Thief of Bagdad, followed by double nominations the following year for Lydia and Sundown while working for Korda at United Artists. In 1943 he married married Margaret Finlason to whom he would remain married until his death, and with whom he would have two children. He went to work for Paramount the same year where he would compose the scores for Billy Wilder’s Five Graves to Cairo, Double Indemnity and The Lost Weekend among other films. That relationship would end in 1944. In 1945 he worked for David O. Selznick, composing Spellbound for which he would win his first Oscar. He then went to work for Universal.

At Universal from 1946 through 1948, Rosza composed the scores for The Killers, A Double Life (his second Oscar win), The Naked City and several Deanna Durbin vehicles, among other films. He left Universal for MGM in 1949, where he would remain through 1957.

Rozsa’s time at MGM was the most productive of his career. There he composed the scores for such films as Madame Bovary, Adam’s Rib, The Asphalt Jungle, Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe, Julius Caesar, Young Bess, Knights of the Round Table, Lust for Life and Something of Value. In 1958 he went independent again, composing the scores for A Time to Love and a Time to Die for Universal and Ben-Hur (his third Oscar win) and King of Kings for MGM. His score for independent producer Samuel Bronstein would earn him two 1961 Oscar nominations, one for Best Score and one for Best Song (the film’s theme song). They would be his 16th and 17th nominations overall, ending his long relationship with the little golden guy. He would remain active in film, however, for another twenty-one years.

The composer’s later work included 1970’s The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes and 1978’s Fedora (both for old friend Billy Wilder), 1979’s The Last Embrace and Time After Time, 1981’s Eye of the Needle and 1982’s Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid.

Miklos Rozsa died in 1995 at the age of 88. His wife, Margaret, died four years later.

ESSENTIAL FILMS

THE THIEF OF BAGDAD, directed by Ludwig Berger, Michael Powell, Tim Whelan (1940)

Rozsa’s work for producer Alexander Korda was highly productive and rewarding. It included the scores for Knight Without Armor (his first film), The Four Feathers, The Thief of Bagdad, which brought him to America and earned him his first Oscar nomination, That Hamilton Woman and Jungle Book. He earned four Oscar nominations in all while working for Korda and United Artists. It is The Thief of Bagdad, however, that has not only remained most associated with his early career but the score that most people think of when they think of Rozsa.

THE LOST WEEKEND, directed by Billy Wilder (1945)

Rozsa’s work for Billy Wilder and Paramount was as productive as his work for Alexander Korda. His first score for Wilder was Five Graves to Cairo which Wilder used over the objections of Paramount music chief Victor Young. Next came Double Indemnity. Then came The Lost Weekend which invigorated the film which had been seen as a dud at previews without the score attached. Oscar nominated for both The Lost Weekend and Spellbound, he surprisingly won for the latter which director Alfred Hitchcock hated as much as Rozsa hated Hitchcock.

THE KILLERS, directed by Robert Siodak (1946)

Rozsa had a third successful relationship with Universal where he scored numerous hit films including A Double Life, for which he won his second Oscar, The Naked City and several Deanna Durbin films, among others. It’s this one, however, that most people are familiar with if for nothing else, a little “dum de dum dum” which can be heard in the restaurant shoot-out scene near the end of the film. When the TV show Dragnet used that same sound for its famed opening credits, Rozsa sued and was resultantly given co-credit for scoring Dragnet.

BEN-HUR, directed by William Wyler (1959)

Rozsa went to work for MGM in 1949, scoring many of their big-budget films, including Madame Bovary, Quo Vadis, Ivanhoe and Julius Caesar. His contractual relationship ended in 1957, but he later composed several more films for Hollywood’s biggest studio including the majestic Ben-Hur, for which he won his third Oscar, and the similar King of Kings. His equally terrific symphonic score for 1961’s El Cid and that film’s theme song would earn him two additional Oscar nominations, the 16th and 17th of his career.

TIME AFTER TIME, directed by Nicholas Meyer (1979)

Nicholas Meyer went against the grain in hiring Rozsa to score his first film as a director. He was looking for a great symphonic score, of the kind that were no longer being written, which would be especially appropriate for the film’s early scenes in 1893 London where Jack the Ripper steals H.G. Wells’ time machine in order to be transported to 1979 San Francisco where he is followed in hot pursuit by Wells. Meyer couldn’t believe his luck that he was able to get the composer of The Thief of Bagdad which had long been regarded as one of the greatest film scores ever written, and still is. This one is pretty good, too.

MIKLOS ROZSA AND OSCAR

• The Thief of Bagdad (1940) – nominated – Best Score
• Lydia (1941) – nominated – Best Score
• Sundown (1941) – nominated – Best Score
• Jungle Book (1942) – nominated – Best Score
• Double Indemnity (1944) – nominated – Best Score
• The Woman of the Town (1944) – nominated – Best Score
• The Lost Weekend (1945) – nominated – Best Score
• A Song to Remember (1945) – nominated – Best Score
• Spellbound (1945) – Oscar – Best Score
• The Killers (1946) – nominated – Best Score
• A Double Life (1947) – Oscar – Best Score
• Quo Vadis (1951) – nominated – Best Score
• Ivanhoe (1952) – nominated – Best Score
• Julius Caesar (1953) – nominated – Best Score
• Ben-Hur (1959) – Oscar – Best Score
• El Cid (1961) – nominated – Best Score
• El Cid (1961) – nominated – Best Song –“Love Theme from El Cid (The Falcon and the Dove)”