Fred Karlin

Fred Karlin ; actually Frederick James Karlin (born June 16, 1936 in Chicago , Illinois , † March 26, 2004 in Culver City , California ) was an American composer and author .

Life

Karlin learned to play the trumpet as a teenager and then studied jazz. After graduating from Amherst College , he worked as an arranger for Benny Goodman in New York and began to compose. In 1962 he met Meg Welles, became musical director of the Meg Welles Quintet and eventually even married her. At Columbia Records he recorded three records with her.

With his experience in classical, blues , rock , folk music and medieval music Karlin began in 1967 his Hollywood -Career with the film against the current up the stairs ( Up the Down Staircase ). Over the next three decades he wrote the music for 30 films and over 100 television productions. His music was best known for the science thriller Westworld (1973) and its sequel Futureworld - The Land of Tomorrow ( Futureword , 1976). On television, his music for the science fiction series Der Mann aus Atlantis ( The Man from Atlantis , 1977) with Patrick Duffy stands out.

In 1969 Karlin received his only Grammy nomination for the music for the film Pookie ( The Sterile Cuckoo ). Karlin received four for his work Oscar nominations in 1971 and an Oscar himself for the title of For All We Know from the movie Lovers and Other Strangers ( Lovers and Other Strangers , 1970). In a cover version by the group The Carpenters , the title became a top 10 hit. Karlin also received an Emmy Award three years later for his music for the television movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and earned 11 other Emmy nominations over the years. His last music by Karlin in 1997 for the TV movie On the hunt for the treasure of Dos Santos ( Lost Treasure of Dos Santos , 1997).

Together with Rayburn Wright, Karlin wrote the compendium On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring . His last book, Great Film Scores , was published in December 2003.

One of Karlin's sons, Kristopher, was murdered in 1978 by his own sister, Wendy Karlin. She was serving a relatively short sentence in an institution for the mentally ill. Karlin died of cancer.

Filmography (selection)

• 1970: $ 100 more if it's a boy (The Baby Maker)
• 1974: Four birds on the gallows (The Spikes Gang)
• 1982: Inside the Third Reich

literature

• Fred Karlin: Great Film Scores , Routledge (December 1, 2003) - ISBN 978-0415941327
• Fred Karlin: On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring, Second Edition (2nd edition), Routledge (January 8, 2004) - ISBN 978-0415941365

Web links

• Literature by and about Fred Karlin in the catalog of the German National Library
• Fred Karlin in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• Fred Karlin discography at Soundtrack Collector
• Music is My Life (Interview 1994)
• Fred Karlin, 67, film composer . Obituary in the New York Times on May 10, 2004 (accessed January 31, 2010)