Russian-born Hollywood Composer best known for his work in westerns. He scored some of Hollywood's greatest westerns, including in High Noon in 1952 and Gunfight at the O.K. Corral in 1957.
He studied piano at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory with Felix Blumenfeld who taught Vladimir Horowitz. His first major film was Alice in Wonderland from 1933.
He won four of his 22 Oscar nominations: three for Best Original Score - High Noon, The High and the Mighty, and The Old Man and the Sea. His fourth was for The Ballad of High Noon in the Best Original Song category.
He was born into a Jewish family. His father was a pathologist and his mother was a musician. He married the Austrian ballerina Albertina Rasch in 1927.
He received his first big break from Director Frank Capra who asked him to score his film Lost Horizon from 1937.
