Ron Goodwin

Ronald Alfred Goodwin (February 17, 1925 – January 8, 2003) was a British composer and conductor best known for his film scores.

Life

Ron Goodwin was born in Plymouth in Devon. He went to Pinner County Grammar School, in Middlesex. He was taught the piano from an early age, and later studied the trumpet in London at the Guildhall School of Music. His first job in music was as a copyist and arranger working for a variety of publishing companies and bands, including some attached to the British Broadcasting Corporation. He later worked as a conductor in recording sessions for a number of popular music artists, Petula Clark among them.

In the 1950s he joined Parlophone, and worked alongside George Martin there. He continued to accompany artists such as Peter Sellers, for example on his "Goodness Gracious Me" album, as well as beginning to broadcast and release records with his own orchestra, the 'Ron Goodwin Concert Orchestra’, from which came a string of popular LPs.

Goodwin was also a guest conductor with a number of symphony orchestras, including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He usually conducted film music by himself and others, light music, and arrangements of popular music on these occasions. He also made a number of records of orchestral versions of pop tunes.

Goodwin won three Ivor Novello Awards, including one for lifetime achievement in 1994. He was also given honorary Freemdom of the City of London.

Goodwin was a sufferer of asthma. He died suddenly in 2003 at his home near Newbury having recently completed conducting his last series of Christmas concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.

Works

Ron Goodwin is particularly famous for his film music, and during his career Goodwin worked on over 60 film scores. His first film work was for documentary films, and his first feature was Whirlpool in 1958, followed by work in television and on the film The Day of the Triffids in 1962.

His work on a number of famous war films, is particularly well remembered, with the title marches in wide use with military bands, brass bands and orchestras. These include Where Eagles Dare (1968), Battle of Britain (1969), for which he replaced William Walton, 633 Squadron and Operation Crossbow.

After many requests from military bands, the opening music from Battle of Britain, originally titled the Luftwaffe March, was officially retitled Aces High.

He also wrote the scores for Of Human Bondage (1964), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film Frenzy (for which he replaced Henry Mancini), four Miss Marple films, and two movies featuring Morecambe and Wise, as well as several Norman Wisdom films, including The Early Bird.

He is also remembered for some of his light music compositions, such as The Headless Horseman and the theme for 1966 film The Trap that has been used for many years by the BBC as the theme to the London Marathon coverage.

Ron composed all of the music and songs for a series of animated films that included "The Happy Prince", "The Selfish Giant" and "The Little Mermaid". The first two of these being based on stories by Oscar Wilde, and the latter by Hans Christian Andersen. All three of these films feature original music composed by Ron and the songs feature extremely altruistic lyrics with moral lessons. This collection of animated films was available on VHS through Reader's Digest under the collection title "Classic Fairy Tales".

External links

• Ron Goodwin's own web site, still maintained by the Ron Goodwin Estate
• Complete discography and film list
• Ron Goodwin at IMDb
• Detailed biography at The Robert Farnon Society