Herbert W. Spencer
Herbert Winfield Spencer (born April 7, 1905 in Santiago de Chile , † September 18, 1992 in Culver City , California ) was an American - Chilean film composer and orchestrator.
Life
Spencer graduated from the University of Pennsylvania with a music degree , where he led the college band. In the 1920s he was still active as a saxophonist in dance orchestras, including Meyer Davis and the Dorsey Brothers. In 1935, the famous film composer Alfred Newman offered him a job at 20th Century Fox . Here Spencer met Earle Hagen , with whom he later founded the Spencer-Hagen Orchestra. With their combo, both musicians recorded several albums on the X label for the RCA . The two also started a film music service called Music Scoring, Inc. (MSI). The two composed for various sitcoms such as Where's Raymond? (1953-1955), It's Always Jan (1955-1956), My Sister Eileen (1960) and The Danny Thomas Show (1953-1957). In 1960 MSI was dissolved.
Spencer then composed for The Joey Bishop Show (1961-1964) and was co-composer for The Fishin 'Hole , the theme song of the Andy Griffith Show . As an orchestrator, he has participated in films such as The Little Princess (1939), Music, Music (1942), Blondes preferred (1953), Madame Makes Stories (1953), Carousel (1956), Funny Girl (1968) and Hello , Dolly! (1969).
In his sixty-year career he was nominated twice for an Oscar : at the 1971 Academy Awards with Leslie Bricusse and Ian Fraser for Scrooge and at the 1974 Academy Awards with André Previn and Andrew Lloyd Webber for Jesus Christ Superstar . He also received a Golden Globe nomination for Scrooge .
He later worked frequently with John Williams . He orchestrated the first Star Wars trilogy, the Indiana Jones film series and ET - The Extra Terrestrial .
His last work was for the feature films For Lack of Evidence and Home Alone (both 1990 and both for John Williams).
literature
- Jürgen Wölfer, Roland Löper: The great lexicon of film composers, Schwarzkopf & Schwarzkopf, Berlin 2003, p. 495 f.
Web links
- W. Herbert Spencer in the Internet Movie Database (English)
- Herbert W. Spencer at Discogs (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Spencer, Herbert W. |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Spencer, Herbert Winfield (full name); Spencer, Herb (other name); Spencer, Herbert (other name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American-Chilean film composer and orchestrator |
| DATE OF BIRTH | April 7, 1905 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Santiago de Chile |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 18, 1992 |
| Place of death | Culver City , California |