Born Feburary 10th, 1929, Jerry Goldsmith began studying the piano at age 6. He began to study composing, theory, and counterpoint at age 14 with Jacob Gimpel and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Jerry also attended classes in composistion, and earned an Hononary Doctorate from Berklee College Of Music in Boston.
Goldsmith started out in 1950 when he was employed by CBS as a clerk typist for the music department doing his first assignment as a composer was for radio shows like Romance and CBS Radio Workshop. He was then hired to compose Thriller a series created by Revue studios.
During this time, Goldsmith became aquainted with Alfred Newman who recognized his talents and encouraged Universal Studios to hire him to score the movie Lonely Are The Brave which made its debut in 1963.
After his film debut in 1963, Goldsmith established himself as a contract composer for 20th Century Fox, and also established himself as a leading name in American Film music.
Jerry Goldsmith has jogged from TV scores to Movies which started during the 70's with movies such as Breakout, The Last Run, The Wind and The Lion, Papillion, Chinatown, his only Oscar winning score The Omen, The decade ended with films and TV shows such as Star Trek: The Motion Picture, The Blue Max, Magic, and The Swarm.
The 80's brought many TV/Film scores, including the epic Mesada in which the composer scored only four hours and the theme. Others included First Blood, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Supergirl, and Runaway.
Goldsmith went on to score other TV series and Films such as Star Trek's: The Next Generation, and Voyager, Total Recall, The Mummy, and Air Force One. He continues to perform with excellence, and is still one of the greatest film composers today.
Biography by: Roger Smith
Submitted: 10.06.03
