Lalo Schifrin (Spanish pronunciation:[ˈlalo ˈʃifɾin];[1] bornBoris Claudio Schifrin; June 21, 1932 – June 26, 2025) was an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger and conductor. He was best known for his large body of film and televisionscores, which incorporatejazz andLatin American musical elements alongside traditional orchestration.
Schifrin was born inBuenos Aires on June 21, 1932[2][3] as Boris Claudio.[4] The nickname "Lalo" was the normal Argentinediminutive for his second name, Claudio. When he came to the U.S., he changed his name to Lalo legally to simplify his contracts.[5]
His father, Luis Schifrin, led the second violin section of theBuenos Aires Philharmonic for three decades.[4][6] His father wasJewish and his motherCatholic, exposing him early to both kinds of worship.[7] At age six, Schifrin began a six-year course of study on piano with Enrique Barenboim, the father of pianist and conductorDaniel Barenboim. Schifrin began studying piano with the Greek-Russian expatriate Andrea Karalin, the onetime head of theKiev Conservatory and harmony withJuan Carlos Paz.[6] During this time, Schifrin also became interested injazz.[5]
After returning toArgentina in his twenties, Schifrin formed a jazzbig band[6] of 16 players that became part of a popular weekly variety show on Buenos Aires TV. He also began accepting film, television and radio assignments. In 1956 he metDizzy Gillespie[6] and offered to write an extended work for Gillespie's big band. Schifrin completed the work,Gillespiana, in 1958[4] and it was recorded in 1960.[6]
While inNew York City in 1960, Schifrin again met Gillespie, who had by this time disbanded his big band for financial reasons. Gillespie invited Schifrin to fill the vacant piano chair in his quintet. Schifrin immediately accepted and moved to New York City, as Gillespie's pianist and arranger.[6][7] Schifrin wrote a second extended composition for Gillespie,The New Continent, which was recorded in 1962.[6] On May 26, 1963, he recorded an album,Buenos Aires Blues, withDuke Ellington's alto saxophonist,Johnny Hodges. Schifrin wrote two compositions for the album;Dreary Blues and the title trackB. A. Blues.
In 1963,Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, which had Schifrin under contract, offered the composer his firstHollywood film assignment with the African adventureRhino![4] Schifrin moved toLos Angeles.[6][7] He became a naturalized US citizen in 1969.[7]
Record of Mission: Impossible theme
One of Schifrin's most recognizable and enduring compositions isthe theme music for the long-running TV seriesMission: Impossible that started in 1966.[6] It is a distinctive tune written in the uncommon5 4time signature.[6] The meter (dash dash, dot dot) isMorse code for the letters M and I. Similarly Schifrin's theme for theMannix private eye TV show was composed in 1967 as a jazz waltz;[6] Schifrin composed several other jazzy and bluesy numbers over the years as additional incidental music for the show.[9]
Schifrin's "Tar Sequence" from hisCool Hand Luke score (written in6 4) was the longtime theme for theEyewitness News broadcasts on New York stationWABC-TV and other ABC affiliates, as well asNine News in Australia; it was used into the 1990s.[6] CBS Television used part of the theme of hisSt. Ives soundtrack for its golf broadcasts in the 1970s and early 1980s. Schifrin's score for the 1968 filmCoogan's Bluff was the beginning of a long association withClint Eastwood and directorDon Siegel.[10] Schifrin's strong jazz-blues riffs were evident inDirty Harry.[11] The jazzyBullitt score for thisPeter Yates directed film was recorded in December of the same year.[12] In 1973 he incorporated funk and traditional film score elements into soundtrack for the Bruce Lee filmEnter the Dragon.[13] He composed the score by sampling sounds fromChina,Korea, andJapan. The soundtrack has sold over 500,000 copies, earning agold record.[14]
Schifrin's working score for 1973'sThe Exorcist was rejected by the film's director,William Friedkin.[15] Schifrin had written six minutes of difficult and heavy music for the initial film trailer, but audiences were reportedly frightened by the combination of sights and sounds.[15] As reported by Schifrin in an interview,Warner Bros. executives told Friedkin to instruct Schifrin to tone it down with softer music, but Friedkin did not relay the message.[15] Schifrin said that working on the film was one of the most unpleasant experiences in his life.[15] He later reused the compositions in other scores.[15] In 1976 he released a single called "Jaws", a version of theJohn Williams theme from theUniversal Pictures filmJaws, on CTI (Creed Taylor Incorporated) records. The single spent nine weeks on the UK chart, peaking at number 14.[16] He also composed the 1976 fanfare forParamount Pictures, which was used mainly for theirhome video label and was adapted for thetelevision division 11 years later until it was renamed to CBS Paramount Television (nowCBS Studios) in 2006.[17] In 1981 he wrote the music for the slapstick comedy filmCaveman.[18]
In the 1990s, Schifrin wrote many of the arrangements forThe Three Tenors concerts,[6] beginning with their first concert in Rome in 1990 on the eve of theFIFA World Cup final.[2] In the 1998 filmTango, he returned totango music, with which he had grown familiar while working as Piazzolla's pianist in the mid-1950s. He brought traditional tango songs to the film, as well as introducing compositions of his own, in which tango is fused with jazz elements.[19]
On April 23, 2007, Schifrin presented a concert of film music for the Festival du Film Jules Verne Aventures (Festival Jules Verne), atLe Grand Rex theatre in Paris–Europe's biggest movie theater.[21][22] It was recorded by festival leaders for a CD namedLalo Schifrin: Le Concert à Paris. In 2010, a fictionalized account of Lalo Schifrin's creation of the "Theme fromMission: Impossible" tune was featured in aLipton TV commercial aired in a number of countries around the world.[23]
AfterRod Schejtman won the 2024 Vienna WorldVision Composers Contest,[24] Schifrin in 2024 invited him to jointly compose a symphony dedicated to their country.[25] They composed a 35-minute symphony in threemovements, subtitled "Long Live Freedom",[6] for an orchestra of nearly 100 musicians. Intending it as a tribute to Argentina, they drew inspiration from the nation's history over the past 40 years and fused cinematic and classical elements.[25][26] The symphony premiered at theTeatro Colón on April 5, 2025.[6]
Schifrin married Sylvia Schon in Buenos Aires in 1958; they had two children[27][28][29] The marriage ended in divorce.[2] He married Donna Cockrell in 1971; they had a son. His second wife managed his business and record label.[2][6]
In 2008 Schifrin wrote an autobiography,Mission Impossible: My Life in Music.[6][30] He said:
In music, the choices are infinite. The possibilities of sound combinations with the acoustic instruments of a symphony orchestra, a jazz band or a chamber ensemble have not yet been exhausted. What has been done in the field of electronic music so far has not even scratched the surface of a vast continent to be explored.[6]
Schifrin died from complications of pneumonia at a hospital in Los Angeles, on June 26, 2025, at the age of 93.[6][31][32]
Schifrin won fiveGrammy Awards (four Grammy Awards and a Latin Grammy), with twenty-two nominations, oneCableACE Award and received sixAcademy Award and fourPrimetime Emmy Award nominations. He has a star on theHollywood Walk of Fame. In 2016, it was announced that hisMission: Impossible theme was to be inducted into the Grammy Award Hall of Fame. In 2018, Clint Eastwood presented him with anAcademy Honorary Award "in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity and influential contributions to the art of film scoring."[6]
^Schifrin, Lalo; Dominguez, Juanjo (2012).Che! music from and inspired by the motion picture "Che" (in no linguistic content). [Encino (Calif.)]; [France]: Aleph records ; [Distrib. Naïve distribution].OCLC812506237.
^Schifrin, Lalo,THX 1138 : [original motion picture soundtrack, Culver City, Calif.: Film Score Monthly,OCLC229123622
^Schifrin, Lalo (2001),Enter the dragon music from the motion picture, [New York, NY]: Warner Bros. Records,OCLC781334218
^Schifrin, Lalo (1998),Dirty Harry anthology : original music from the soundtracks of Dirty Harry, Sudden Imapct [sic], and Magnum Force, S.L.: Aleph Records,OCLC829672899
^"Catalog".AFI. September 24, 1982. RetrievedJuly 3, 2025.
^Schifrin, Lalo (2008),Sudden impact the original score : by Lalo Schifrin (in no linguistic content), [Encino (Calif.)], [France]: Aleph records ; [Distrib. Naïve distribution],OCLC658449298
^Schifrin, Lalo (1982),The sting II : music from the original motion picture soundtrack (in no linguistic content), Universal City, Calif.: MCA Records,OCLC18880800
^Schifrin, Lalo (2009),The dead pool the original score (in no linguistic content), Beverly Hills, [France]: Ca : Aleph records ; [Distrib. Naïve distribution],OCLC658650505
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