- Born
- Died
- Elmer Bernstein was educated at the Walden School and New York University. He served in the US Army Air Corps in World War II, writing scores for the service radio unit. He also wrote and arranged musical numbers for Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band. A prolific and respected film music composer, he was a protégé of Aaron Copland, who studied music with Roger Sessions and Stefan Wolpe. Bernstein worked in various artistic endeavors, including painting and the theatre and also performed as an actor and dancer. Among his early composition work were scores for United Nations radio programs and television and industrial documentaries. His original scores for films range over an enormous variety of styles, with his groundbreaking jazz score for L'homme au bras d'or (1955), light musical comedies such as his Oscar-winning Millie (1967) score, and perhaps his most familiar score, for the western Les 7 mercenaires (1960). Between 1963 and 1969, Bernstein served as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.
A few years before before his death, he acquired something of a cult status among fans of English football when his familiar main theme for La Grande Évasion (1963) was adopted by them and hummed and played, lustily, during matches.- IMDb mini biography by: Jim Beaver <jumblejim@prodigy.net>
- SpousesEve Adamson(October 25, 1965 - August 18, 2004) (his death, 2 children)Pearl Glusman(December 21, 1946 - 1965) (divorced, 2 children)
- Children
- Bombastic main themes
- Often scored movies by directors John Sturges, John Landis, and Ivan Reitman
- He is the only individual to be nominated for an Academy Award in each of the last six decades: the 1950s, 1960s, 1970s, 1980s, 1990s and 2000s.
- He was nominated for Academy Awards 14 times but won only once, ironically for one of his less acclaimed scores - Millie (1967).
- Following his death, his family has requested that, in lieu of flowers or other remembrances, a charitable donation be sent to:
Young Musicians Foundation 195 South Beverly Drive, #415 Beverly Hills, CA 90212.
A special scholarship fund will be established in his name. Since 1955, Young Musicians Foundation (YMF) has provided encouragement and recognition to gifted young musicians from around the country through financial assistance, performance opportunities, and music education programs. - He was conductor for one season of the San Fernando Valley Symphony Orchestra. It is generally considered to be that orchestra's most successful season and that it showed Bernstein to be a very capable conductor. The orchestra consisted of various musicians, including members of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and studio musicians. Some of Bernstein's own film scores were even being used as parts of the the orchestra's programming. He also got to help in the founding of Varese Sarabande Records, where recordings of some of film scores and music by other composers such as Miklós Rózsa were produced.
- In 1953, he was doing scores for budget films such as Robot Monster (1953) and Cat-Women of the Moon (1953). He was doing the score for Cecil B. DeMille's Les Dix Commandements (1956) three years later.
- I would say that the work on Les Dix Commandements (1956) was singularly the most exciting project of my entire life.
- [on Cecil B. DeMille] He was more than a director, he was an institution, a monument. He was a man in complete control of every aspect of his film. He knew what he wanted, his vision was clear, it was grand, he was willing to take risks. . . . He was a man of terrific concept, of terrific authority, he was a man who believed in himself as no other director I have ever worked with.
- [on "Love With The Proper Stranger"]: The people on the movie were lovely people to work with, but nobody knew how they wanted the picture to go. It had no firm direction. A pity, really.
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