Alex North

American composer Alex North (1910-1991) wrote the first jazz-based film score (A Streetcar Named Desire) and one of the first modernist scores written in Hollywood (Viva Zapata!). He was one of several composers who brought the influence of contemporary concert music into film, in part marked by an increased use of dissonance and complex rhythms. He was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, to Jewish family, which had left the Russian Empire for the US around 1906. During the Second World War, North served as a captain in the United States Army Special Services division from 1942 to 1946. There, he was responsible for "self-entertainment" programs in mental hospitals. He also composed music for more than twenty-six documentaries for the War Department while in the service. North was an original composer probably even by the classical music standards of the day. However, he managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. His best-known film scores include The Rainmaker (1956), Spartacus (1960), The Misfits (1961), Cleopatra (1963), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), and Dragonslayer (1981), among others. His classical works include two symphonies and a Rhapsody for Piano, Trumpet obbligato and Orchestra. He was nominated for a Grammy Award for his score for the 1976 television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man. North received fifteen Oscar Nominations throughout his career, one for Best Original Song, the rest in the Best Original Score category, but unsuccessful each time. He was however awarded an Honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1986 as the first composer to receive it.