Stanley Myers
Background information
Born	6 October 1930 Birmingham,Warwickshire, England
Died	9 November 1993(1993-11-09) (aged 63) Kensington and Chelsea,London, England
Genres	Film score
Occupations	Composer, conductor
Spouse	Eleanor Fazan

Stanley Myers (6 October 1930 – 9 November 1993) was an English composer and conductor,^[1] who scored over sixty films and television series, working closely with filmmakersNicolas Roeg,Jerzy Skolimowski andVolker Schlöndorff.^[2] He is best known for his guitar piece "Cavatina", composed for the 1970 filmThe Walking Stick and later used as the theme forThe Deer Hunter.^[3] He was nominated for aBAFTA Award for Best Film Music forWish You Were Here (1987), and was an early collaborator with and mentor ofHans Zimmer.

Myers was born inBirmingham, England; as a teenager he went toKing Edward's School inEdgbaston, a suburb of Birmingham.^[4] He marriedchoreographerEleanor Fazan.

Myers wrote incidental music for television: for example, "The Reign of Terror", a 1964 serial in the television seriesDoctor Who; the theme toAll Gas and Gaiters; and the theme for theBBC'sQuestion Time.^[5][6]

One night in 1966, Myers andBarry Fantoni had called into the Chi Chi club to discuss the music for the movieKaleidoscope which was to starWarren Beatty andSusannah York. What they were after was a switched-on song they needed for a switched-on intense movie. The resident group calledRomeo Z came on and caused the ceiling to shake. There they knew they had the band they wanted, and they got the band to record the song "Kaleidoscope", which appeared in the film and on the soundtrack album which was released onWarner Bros. W 1663 in October 1966^[7][8]

He is known for composing music for the cult horror filmsHouse of Whipcord,Frightmare,House of Mortal Sin andSchizo for filmmakerPete Walker.^[9][10]

The Pink Floyd website credits thebrass parts on their 1968 song "Corporal Clegg" to "The Stanley Myers Orchestra".^[11]

Myers is best known for "Cavatina" (1970), an evocative guitar piece, played byJohn Williams, that served as the signature theme forMichael Cimino's 1978 filmThe Deer Hunter, and for which Myers won theIvor Novello Award.^[1] A somewhat different version of this work, not performed by Williams, had appeared inThe Walking Stick. And yet another version had lyrics added.Cleo Laine andIris Williams, in separate recordings as "He Was Beautiful", helped to make "Cavatina" become even more popular.^[1]

During the 1980s, Myers worked frequently with directorStephen Frears. His score forPrick Up Your Ears (1987) won him a "Best Artistic Contribution" award at theCannes Film Festival.^[12] He also scored the filmWish You Were Here^[13] and several low budget features (Time Traveller,Blind Date,The Wind,Zero Boys) for director Nico Mastorakis, collaborating withHans Zimmer.^[1] He won another Ivor Novello Award for his soundtrack toThe Witches in 1991.^[4]

Myers died of cancer aged 63 inKensington and Chelsea, London.^[4][14]

^[1]

• Stanley Myers atIMDb
• Stanley Myers at theBritish Film Institute

• 1933 births
• 1993 deaths
• 20th-century English classical musicians
• 20th-century English composers
• 20th-century English male composers
• Deaths from cancer in England
• English film score composers
• English male film score composers
• English male television composers
• English television composers
• Musicians from Birmingham, West Midlands
• People educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham
• Varèse Sarabande Records artists

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Use dmy dates from January 2020
• Use British English from January 2020
• All Wikipedia articles written in British English
• Articles with hCards
• Pages using infobox musical artist with associated acts