Heinz Roemheld (May 1, 1901 – February 11, 1985) was anAmericancomposer.

BornHeinz Eric Roemheld inMilwaukee, Wisconsin, he was one of four children of German immigrant Heinrich Roemheld and his wife Fanny Rauterberg Roemheld. Heinrich was apharmacist, but all the members of the family were musical. His brother Edgar Roemheld (1898-1964) became a conductor. His sister Irmgard Roemheld (1904-1995) became a well-known Milwaukee music teacher and radio broadcaster.

Roemheld was achild prodigy who began playing the piano at four. He graduated from the Milwaukee College of Music at 19 and performed in theaters to earn money to studypiano inEurope. In 1920, he went toBerlin, where he studied withHugo Kaun,Ferruccio Busoni, andEgon Petri. While there, he appeared in concert with theBerlin Philharmonic.^[1]

When he returned to America, Roemheld became involved in music forsilent movies, both as a pianist and conductor. In 1925, he was sent back to Berlin as head ofUniversal Pictures theaters there but had to leave in 1929 due to the rise ofNazism.^{[citation needed]}

Back in America, Roemheld moved to Los Angeles and became a prominentcinema composer. He scored some scenes inGone with the Wind, including the burning of Atlanta, although he was not credited on-screen. In 1942, he won theAcademy Award for Best Original Music Score forYankee Doodle Dandy. Among the more than 400 other films for which he composed music wereGentleman Jim,The Lady From Shanghai,The Invisible Man, andShine On, Harvest Moon.^{[citation needed]}

After World War II, Roemheld returned to Germany to become Chief of the Film, Theatre, and Music Section of the Information Central Division of The American Armies in Europe. He continued writing for several major film studios until the late 1950s and, after briefly working intelevision, he retired in 1964 to concentrate on classical composition. He is best known for the song"Ruby" from the movieRuby Gentry (1952), which has become a standard.

He married a former Miss Milwaukee, Emeline Defnet (1901-1980), from whom he was later divorced. They had two daughters, Mary Lou Roemheld, who was married for years to game show hostJack Narz, and Ann Roemheld, who married game show hostBill Cullen.^[2]

Roemheld died on February 11, 1985, at a convalescent home inHuntington Beach after contracting pneumonia three weeks earlier.^[2]

• Heinz Roemheld atIMDb
• Heinz Roemheld atAllMusic

• American expatriates in France
• American expatriates in Germany
• American film score composers
• American male classical composers
• American male film score composers
• American people of German descent
• Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
• Classical musicians from Wisconsin
• Deaths from pneumonia in California
• Musicians from Milwaukee
• Wisconsin Conservatory of Music alumni
• 1901 births
• 1985 deaths
• 20th-century American classical composers
• 20th-century American male composers

• Articles with short description
• Short description is different from Wikidata
• Pages using infobox person with multiple parents
• Articles with hCards
• All articles with unsourced statements
• Articles with unsourced statements from January 2016