Saul Chaplin (February 19, 1912 – November 15, 1997) was an Americancomposer andmusical director.

He was bornSaul Kaplan inBrooklyn,New York.He had worked on stage, screen and television since the days ofTin Pan Alley. In film, he won threeOscars for collaborating on the scores and orchestrations ofAn American in Paris (1951),Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) andWest Side Story (1961).

Born to aJewish family,^[1] Chaplin graduated with a B.A. in accounting fromNew York University's School of Commerce. After school, Chaplin joined theASCAP and started out penning tunes for the theatre,vaudeville and for New York's famous songwriting district, Tin Pan Alley. While in New York, Chaplin teamed withSammy Cahn to compose original songs forVitaphone movie shorts, filmed in Brooklyn byWarner Brothers. During this period the team was sometimes billed only by surname ("Cahn and Chaplin"), in the manner ofRodgers and Hart orGilbert and Sullivan.

Cahn and Chaplin relocated to Hollywood and scored two films forUniversal Pictures. Chaplin then moved toColumbia Pictures to scoreCover Girl andThe Jolson Story. While on the latter film, Chaplin andAl Jolson penned the million-selling hit tuneThe Anniversary Song. In the late1940s, Chaplin moved toMGM to work on a long string of films includingOn the Town (1949),Kiss Me Kate (1953),High Society (1956) andMerry Andrew (1958). For collaborating on such hits asBei Mir Bist Du Schoen andPlease Be Kind, Chaplin was inducted into theSongwriters Hall of Fame in 1985. He won Academy Awards for his work on the scores ofSeven Brides for Seven Brothers,An American in Paris andWest Side Story as well as nominations forKiss Me Kate andHigh Society.

While continuing as a film music supervisor, Chaplin became an associate producer in the early'60s and worked on such major features asCan-Can (1960),West Side Story (1961),I Could Go On Singing (1963),The Sound of Music (1965),STAR! (1968),Man of La Mancha (1972) andThat's Entertainment, Part 2 (1976).

He published his autobiography,The Golden Age of Movie Musicals and Me, in 1994. He had worked with and was friends with most of the major songwriters and performers of his era, such asCole Porter,Ira Gershwin,Al Jolson,Leonard Bernstein,Judy Garland,Gene Kelly,Phil Silvers,Julie Andrews,Frank Sinatra and others. His memoir focused on the behind the scenes aspect of moviemaking.^{[citation needed]}

Chaplin married Ethel Schwartz and had one child, a daughter Judith (who marriedHarold Prince); the couple divorced in 1950. In 1968, Chaplin married Betty Levin, who had worked as script supervisor onThe Sound of Music.

In late 1997, the 85-year-old Chaplin suffered a bad fall and on November 15 died inCedars-Sinai Medical Center as a result of his injuries.^[2]

• Saul Chaplin atIMDb
• Saul Chaplin at theInternet Broadway Database
• Songwriters Hall of Fame page on Saul Chaplin
• Saul Chaplin atFind a Grave

• 1912 births
• 1997 deaths
• American film score composers
• American male film score composers
• Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
• Songwriters from New York (state)
• Musicians from Brooklyn
• American vaudeville performers
• Grammy Award winners
• Accidental deaths in California
• Accidental deaths from falls
• Burials at Mount Sinai Memorial Park Cemetery
• 20th-century American classical musicians
• 20th-century American composers
• 20th-century American male musicians
• Jewish American film score composers
• 20th-century American Jews
• American male songwriters
• 20th-century American songwriters

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