Alex North | |
|---|---|
| Born | Isadore Soifer (1910-12-04)December 4, 1910 Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
| Died | September 8, 1991(1991-09-08) (aged 80) Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Genres | |
| Occupation | Composer |
Alex North (bornIsadore Soifer; December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, includingA Streetcar Named Desire (one of the first jazz-based film scores),Viva Zapata!,Spartacus,Cleopatra, andWho's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?[1] He received fifteenAcademy Award nominations for his work as a composer; while he did not win for any of his nominations, he received anHonorary Academy Award in 1986, the first for a composer.[2]
He wrote the music for theOscar-nominated song "Unchained Melody", which was used in the 1955 prison filmUnchained.[3] The song became astandard and one of the most recorded of the 20th century, with over 1,500 recordings made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages.[4]
North was born Isadore Soifer inChester, Pennsylvania, toJewish parents Jesse and Beila (Bessie). They had emigrated from theRussian Empire to the U.S. around 1906. Jesse was originally fromBila Tserkva and Bessie fromOdessa (both cities are now inUkraine). In Chester, Jesse worked as a blacksmith and skilled mechanic, and Bessie ran a small grocery store.[5] In 1915, Jesse died on the operating table during surgery forappendicitis, leaving Bessie with financial hardships.[6] In the late 1920s, Isadore's older brother Jacob began writing articles for radical labor publications. To shield his family from political peril, Jacob adopted thepseudonym "Joseph North". Soon the family followed his lead, and Isadore Soifer became Alex North.[7]
In theSecond World War, Alex served as acaptain in theU.S. ArmySpecial Services division from 1942 to 1946.[8][9] There, he was responsible for "self-entertainment" programs in mental hospitals. He also composed music for more than twenty-six documentary films for theOffice of War Information.[8] While in the service, he wrote the score for the documentary short,A Better Tomorrow (1945).[10]
North managed to integrate hismodernism into typical film musicleitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song "Unchained Melody".[1] Nominated for fifteenOscars but unsuccessful each time, North is one of only twofilm composers to receive theLifetime Achievement Academy Award, the other beingEnnio Morricone. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composerHenry Brant. He won the 1968Golden Globe award for his music toThe Shoes of the Fisherman (1968).
His best-known film scores includeA Streetcar Named Desire,Death of a Salesman,Viva Zapata!,The Rainmaker,Spartacus,The Misfits,Cleopatra,Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?,Dragonslayer andUnder the Volcano.[1] His music forThe Wonderful Country makes use of Mexican and American motifs.
Hiscommissioned score for2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is notorious for having been discarded by directorStanley Kubrick late in the production process. Although North subsequently incorporated motifs from the rejected score forThe Shoes of the Fisherman,Shanks andDragonslayer, the score itself remained unheard until composerJerry Goldsmith re-recorded it forVarèse Sarabande in 1993. In 2007,Intrada Records released the 1968 recording sessions on CD from North's personal archives.
North was also commissioned to write a jazz score forNero Wolfe, a 1959 CBS-TV series based onRex Stout's Nero Wolfe characters, starringWilliam Shatner as Archie Goodwin andKurt Kasznar as Nero Wolfe.[11] A pilot and two or three episodes were filmed, but the designated time slot was, in the end, given to another series.[12][13] North's unheard score forNero Wolfe and six recorded tracks on digital audio tape are in the UCLA Music Library Special Collections.[14] He wrote the music for various other TV shows, such as the anthologiesClimax! andPlayhouse 90.[1]
Though North is best known for his work in Hollywood, he spent years in New York writing music for the stage; he composed the score for the original Broadway production ofDeath of a Salesman. It was in New York that he metElia Kazan (director ofSalesman), who brought him to Hollywood in the 1950s. North was one of several composers who merged the sound of contemporary concert music into film, in part marked by an increased use of dissonance and complex rhythms. But there is also a lyrical quality to much of his work which may be connected to the influence ofAaron Copland, with whom he studied in 1936–37.[15]
His classical works include two symphonies and aRhapsody for Piano, Trumpet obbligato and Orchestra. His music for the 1976 television miniseriesRich Man, Poor Man was aGrammy Award nominee and anEmmy Award winner.[16] He went on to score the sequelRich Man, Poor Man Book II as well as the 1978 miniseriesThe Word. North is also known for his opening to theCBS television anthology seriesPlayhouse 90 and the 1965ABC television miniseriesFDR.
North was recognized for his lifetime achievement in 2004 from the Sammy Film Music Awards.
In 2016, the Library of Congress added North's 1951 recording of his score to "A Streetcar Named Desire" to its National Recording Registry.
North died on September 8, 1991, in Los Angeles, California. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.
TheAmerican Film Institute ranked North's score forA Streetcar Named Desire No. 19 ontheir list of the greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were also nominated for the list:
North was nominated for fifteen Academy Awards throughout his career, one forBest Original Song, the rest in theBest Original Score category, making him the most-nominated composer to have never won. He was however awarded anHonorary Academy Award in 1986; he was the first composer to receive it.
Golden Globe Awards for Original Score:
ASCAP Award for Original Score:
Emmy Awards for Music Composition:
Grammy Awards for Original Score:
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