Alfred Newman came to Hollywood in 1930 from a stellar career as a musical director on Broadway where he befriended such talents as Richard Rodgers, George Gershwin, and Jerome Kern. His first original score, for Street Scene (1931), contained an urban-jazz theme that went on to be used in many subsequent films. In 1933 he wrote the 20th Century-Fox fanfare (then, for 20th Century Pictures) which has become the most famous of the ‘30s working for Samuel Goldwyn; in late 1939 he began a 20-year stint as musical director for Fox under Darryl F. Zanuck.

Widely considered the finest conductor in the history of American films, Newman accumulated 45 Academy Award nominations, second only to Walt Disney in number—and won nine Oscars, mostly for musicals that he arranged and supervised, such as Tin Pan Alley (1940), The King and I (1956), and Camelot (1967).  The Oscar winning The Song of Bernadette (1943) was one of several inspiring Newman scores on religious themes; others included The Robe (1953) and the all star Greatest Story Ever Told (1965).

Newman ranks with Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold as one of the three great pioneers of American film music, albeit the only one who was actually born in the U.S.  He wrote more than 250 scores, including masterpieces in every genre: adventure (The Prisoner of Zenda, 1937; Gunga Din, 1939), romance (Wuthering Heights, 1939), historical drama (The Hunchback of Nortre Dame, 1939; Captain From Castile, 1947), western (How the West Was Won, 1962), contemporary drama (All About Eve, 1950; Airport, 1970).

Newman founded an entire dynasty of film composers.  His brothers Emil and Lionel were top studio conductors and sometime composers; Alfred’s sons David and Thomas, and nephew Randy, all followed him into the film-scoring profession.

Biography written by Jon Burlingame, Sound and Vision, 60 years of Motion Picture Soundtracks.