Alex North

American composer

For the fictional character, see Alex North (Doctors).

Alex North

Birth name| Isadore Soifer
Born| (1910-12-04)December 4, 1910
Chester, Pennsylvania, U.S.
Died| September 8, 1991(1991-09-08) (aged 80)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Genres| Film score, theatre, classical rock, jazz rock
Occupation| Composer

Musical artist

Alex North (born Isadore Soifer, December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including A Streetcar Named Desire (one of the first jazz-based film scores), Viva Zapata!, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?[1] He received fifteen Academy Award nominations for his work as a composer; while he did not win for any of his nominations, he received an Honorary Academy Award in 1986, the first for a composer.[2]

He wrote the music for the Oscar-nominated song "Unchained Melody", which was used in the 1955 prison film Unchained.[3] The song became a standard and one of the most recorded of the 20th century, with over 1,500 recordings made by more than 670 artists, in multiple languages.[4]

## Early life

[edit]

North was born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania, to Jewish parents Jesse and Beila (Bessie).[5] They had emigrated from the Russian Empire to the U.S. around 1906. Jesse was originally from Bila Tserkva and Bessie from Odessa (both cities are now in Ukraine). In Chester, Jesse worked as a blacksmith and skilled mechanic, and Bessie ran a small grocery store.[6] In 1915, Jesse died on the operating table during surgery for appendicitis, leaving Bessie with financial hardships.[7] In the late 1920s, Isadore's older brother Jacob began writing articles for radical labor publications. To shield his family from political peril, Jacob adopted the pseudonym "Joseph North". Soon the family followed his lead, and Isadore Soifer became Alex North.[8]

In the Second World War, Alex served as a captain in the U.S. Army Special Services division from 1942 to 1946.[9][10] There, he was responsible for "self-entertainment" programs in mental hospitals. He also composed music for more than twenty-six documentary films for the Office of War Information.[9] While in the service, he wrote the score for the documentary short, A Better Tomorrow (1945).[11]

## Career

[edit]

North managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song "Unchained Melody".[1] Nominated for fifteen Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North is one of only two film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, the other being Ennio Morricone. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He won the 1968 Golden Globe award for his music to The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968).

His best-known film scores include A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, Viva Zapata!, The Rainmaker, Spartacus, The Misfits, Cleopatra, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Dragonslayer and Under the Volcano.[1] His music for The Wonderful Country makes use of Mexican and American motifs.

His commissioned score for 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is notorious for having been discarded by director Stanley Kubrick late in the production process. Although North subsequently incorporated motifs from the rejected score for The Shoes of the Fisherman, Shanks and Dragonslayer, the score itself remained unheard until composer Jerry Goldsmith re-recorded it for Varèse Sarabande in 1993. In 2007, Intrada Records released the 1968 recording sessions on CD from North's personal archives.

North was also commissioned to write a jazz score for Nero Wolfe, a 1959 CBS-TV series based on Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe characters, starring William Shatner as Archie Goodwin and Kurt Kasznar as Nero Wolfe.[12] A pilot and two or three episodes were filmed, but the designated time slot was, in the end, given to another series.[13][14] North's unheard score for Nero Wolfe and six recorded tracks on digital audio tape are in the UCLA Music Library Special Collections.[15] He wrote the music for various other TV shows, such as the anthologies Climax! and Playhouse 90.[1]

Though North is best known for his work in Hollywood, he spent years in New York writing music for the stage; he composed the score for the original Broadway production of Death of a Salesman. It was in New York that he met Elia Kazan (director of Salesman), who brought him to Hollywood in the 1950s. North was one of several composers who merged the sound of contemporary concert music into film, in part marked by an increased use of dissonance and complex rhythms. But there is also a lyrical quality to much of his work which may be connected to the influence of Aaron Copland, with whom he studied in 1936–37.[16]

His classical works include two symphonies and a Rhapsody for Piano, Trumpet obbligato and Orchestra. His music for the 1976 television miniseries Rich Man, Poor Man was a Grammy Award nominee and an Emmy Award winner.[17] He went on to score the sequel Rich Man, Poor Man Book II as well as the 1978 miniseries The Word. North is also known for his opening to the CBS television anthology series Playhouse 90 and the 1965 ABC television miniseries FDR.

## Legacy and recognition

[edit]

North was recognized for his lifetime achievement in 2004 from the Sammy Film Music Awards.

In 2016, the Library of Congress added North's 1951 recording of his score to "A Streetcar Named Desire" to its National Recording Registry.

## Death

[edit]

North died on September 8, 1991, in Los Angeles, California. He was cremated and his ashes were scattered at sea.

## Awards

[edit]

The American Film Institute ranked North's score for A Streetcar Named Desire #19 on their list of the greatest film scores. His scores for the following films were also nominated for the list:

* Cleopatra (1963)
* The Misfits (1961)
* Spartacus (1960)
* Viva Zapata! (1952)
* Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)

North was nominated for fifteen Academy Awards throughout his career, one for Best Original Song, the rest in the Best Original Score category, making him the most-nominated composer to have never won. He was however awarded an Honorary Academy Award in 1986; he was the first composer to receive it.

* Nominated \- A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
* Nominated \- Death of a Salesman (1951)
* Nominated \- Viva Zapata! (1952)
* Nominated \- The Rose Tattoo (1955)
* Nominated \- Best Original Song (with Hy Zaret) "Unchained Melody" (1955)
* Nominated \- The Rainmaker (1956)
* Nominated \- Spartacus (1960)
* Nominated \- Cleopatra (1963)
* Nominated \- The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
* Nominated \- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
* Nominated \- The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
* Nominated \- Shanks (1974)
* Nominated \- Bite the Bullet (1975)
* Nominated \- Dragonslayer (1981)
* Nominated \- Under the Volcano (1984)
* Winner \- Honorary Oscar "in recognition of his brilliant artistry in the creation of memorable music for a host of distinguished motion pictures." (1986)

Golden Globe Awards for Original Score:

* Nominated \- Spartacus (1960)
* Winner \- The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)

ASCAP Award for Original Score:

* Winner \- Lifetime Achievement (1986)
* Winner \- Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)

Emmy Awards for Music Composition:

* Winner \- Rich Man, Poor Man (1976)
* Nominated \- The Word (1978)
* Nominated \- Death of a Salesman (1985)

Grammy Awards for Original Score:

* Nominated \- Cleopatra (1963)
* Nominated \- Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
* Nominated \- Rich Man, Poor Man (1976)

## Selected filmography

[edit]

* A Streetcar Named Desire (1951)
* Death of a Salesman (1951)
* Viva Zapata! (1952)
* Les Misérables (1952)
* Désirée (1954)
* Unchained (1955)
* The Rose Tattoo (1955)
* I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955)
* The Bad Seed (1956)
* The Rainmaker (1956)
* The King and Four Queens (1956)
* The Long, Hot Summer (1958)
* Stage Struck (1958)
* Hot Spell (1958)
* The Sound and the Fury (1959)
* The Wonderful Country (1959)
* Spartacus (1960)
* The Misfits (1961)
* Sanctuary (1961)
* The Children's Hour (1961)
* All Fall Down (1962)
* Cleopatra (1963)
* Cheyenne Autumn (1964)
* The Outrage (1964)
* The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965)
* Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966)
* The Devil's Brigade (1968)
* The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968)
* Hard Contract (1969)
* A Dream of Kings (1969)
* Willard (1971)
* Pocket Money (1972)
* Shanks (1974)
* Bite the Bullet (1975)
* Journey into Fear (1975)
* Somebody Killed Her Husband (1978)
* Wise Blood (1979)
* Carny (1980)
* Dragonslayer (1981)
* Under the Volcano (1984)
* Prizzi's Honor (1985)
* The Dead (1987)
* Good Morning, Vietnam (1987)
* The Penitent (1988)

## References

[edit]

1. ^ a b c d Colin Larkin, ed. (2002). The Virgin Encyclopedia of Fifties Music (Third ed.). Virgin Books. pp. 308/9. ISBN 1-85227-937-0.
2. ^ "Alex North papers". Academy Collection.
3. ^ "Unchained". Turner Classic Movies. Retrieved April 29, 2021.
4. ^ "Unchained Melody". Unchained Melody Publishing LLC. Archived from the original on 9 December 2024.
5. ^ "Isadore North (Soifer)". Geni.com. 4 July 2024.
6. ^ Henderson, Sanya Shoilevska (2009). Alex North, Film Composer. McFarland. p. 7\. ISBN 9780786443338.
7. ^ Henderson 2009, p. 10.
8. ^ Henderson 2009, pp. 12–13.
9. ^ a b "Alex North, Hollywood Film Composer, Talking to Howard Lucraft in 1987". Jazz Professional. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
10. ^ Cleopatra Symphony (U.S. premiere): Alex North www.hollywoodbowl.com. Retrieved August 12, 2021.
11. ^ "A Better Tomorrow (1945)". IMDb.
12. ^ The Billboard, April 20, 1959, pp. 38 + 40
13. ^ Shepard, Richard F. (1959-04-09). "Marian Anderson Will Sing on C.B.S.". Business. The New York Times. p. 61. Retrieved 2023-07-15.
14. ^ Ewald, William (April 9, 1959). "Television in Review". News Herald. New York.
15. ^ Wrobel, Bill. "CBS Collection 072 UCLA" (PDF). Film Score Rundowns. Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 August 2010. The film score researcher identifies 30 CBS digital audio tapes in the UCLA Music Library Special Collections (p. 168), with tracks 86–91 of DAT #11 being the Nero Wolfe music of Alex North (p. 174). The score, CPN5912, is in Box #105 (p. 51).
16. ^ Henderson 2009, p. 21.
17. ^ Broxton, Jonathan. "Alex North (1910-1991)". Pytheas Center for Contemporary Music.

## External links

[edit]

Archives at

| Location| Music Division, Library of Congress

|

Source| Alex North music for documentary film, theater, dance, and concert, ...
How to use archival material

* Biography portal

* Official website
* Alex North at IMDb
* Alex North at the Internet Broadway Database
* Unchained Melody Publishing LLC is the publishing administrator for "Unchained Melody".
* Alex North papers, Margaret Herrick Library, Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Awards for Alex North

* v
* t
* e

Academy Honorary Award

1928–1950|

* Warner Bros. / Charlie Chaplin (1928)
* Walt Disney (1932)
* Shirley Temple (1934)
* D. W. Griffith (1935)
* The March of Time / W. Howard Greene and Harold Rosson (1936)
* Edgar Bergen / W. Howard Greene / Museum of Modern Art Film Library / Mack Sennett (1937)
* J. Arthur Ball / Walt Disney / Deanna Durbin and Mickey Rooney / Gordon Jennings, Jan Domela, Devereaux Jennings, Irmin Roberts, Art Smith, Farciot Edouart, Loyal Griggs, Loren L. Ryder, Harry D. Mills, Louis Mesenkop, Walter Oberst / Oliver T. Marsh and Allen Davey / Harry Warner (1938)
* Douglas Fairbanks / Judy Garland / William Cameron Menzies / Motion Picture Relief Fund (Jean Hersholt, Ralph Morgan, Ralph Block, Conrad Nagel) / Technicolor SA (1939)
* Bob Hope / Nathan Levinson (1940)
* Walt Disney, William Garity, John N. A. Hawkins, and the RCA Manufacturing Company / Leopold Stokowski and his associates / Rey Scott / British Ministry of Information (1941)
* Charles Boyer / Noël Coward / Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (1942)
* George Pal (1943)
* Bob Hope / Margaret O'Brien (1944)
* Republic Studio, Daniel J. Bloomberg, and the Republic Studio Sound Department / Walter Wanger / The House I Live In / Peggy Ann Garner (1945)
* Harold Russell / Laurence Olivier / Ernst Lubitsch / Claude Jarman Jr. (1946)
* James Baskett / Thomas Armat, William Nicholas Selig, Albert E. Smith, and George Kirke Spoor / Bill and Coo / Shoeshine (1947)
* Walter Wanger / Monsieur Vincent / Sid Grauman / Adolph Zukor (1948)
* Jean Hersholt / Fred Astaire / Cecil B. DeMille / The Bicycle Thief (1949)
* Louis B. Mayer / George Murphy / The Walls of Malapaga (1950)

1951–1975|

* Gene Kelly / Rashomon (1951)
* Merian C. Cooper / Bob Hope / Harold Lloyd / George Mitchell / Joseph M. Schenck / Forbidden Games (1952)
* 20th Century-Fox Film Corporation / Bell & Howell Company / Joseph Breen / Pete Smith (1953)
* Bausch & Lomb Optical Company / Danny Kaye / Kemp Niver / Greta Garbo / Jon Whiteley / Vincent Winter / Gate of Hell (1954)
* Samurai I: Musashi Miyamoto (1955)
* Eddie Cantor (1956)
* Society of Motion Picture and Television Engineers / Gilbert M. "Broncho Billy" Anderson / Charles Brackett / B. B. Kahane (1957)
* Maurice Chevalier (1958)
* Buster Keaton / Lee de Forest (1959)
* Gary Cooper / Stan Laurel / Hayley Mills (1960)
* William L. Hendricks / Fred L. Metzler / Jerome Robbins (1961)
* William J. Tuttle (1964)
* Bob Hope (1965)
* Yakima Canutt / Y. Frank Freeman (1966)
* Arthur Freed (1967)
* John Chambers / Onna White (1968)
* Cary Grant (1969)
* Lillian Gish / Orson Welles (1970)
* Charlie Chaplin (1971)
* Charles S. Boren / Edward G. Robinson (1972)
* Henri Langlois / Groucho Marx (1973)
* Howard Hawks / Jean Renoir (1974)
* Mary Pickford (1975)

1976–2000|

* Margaret Booth (1977)
* Walter Lantz / Laurence Olivier / King Vidor / Museum of Modern Art Department of Film (1978)
* Hal Elias / Alec Guinness (1979)
* Henry Fonda (1980)
* Barbara Stanwyck (1981)
* Mickey Rooney (1982)
* Hal Roach (1983)
* James Stewart / National Endowment for the Arts (1984)
* Paul Newman / Alex North (1985)
* Ralph Bellamy (1986)
* Eastman Kodak Company / National Film Board of Canada (1988)
* Akira Kurosawa (1989)
* Sophia Loren / Myrna Loy (1990)
* Satyajit Ray (1991)
* Federico Fellini (1992)
* Deborah Kerr (1993)
* Michelangelo Antonioni (1994)
* Kirk Douglas / Chuck Jones (1995)
* Michael Kidd (1996)
* Stanley Donen (1997)
* Elia Kazan (1998)
* Andrzej Wajda (1999)
* Jack Cardiff / Ernest Lehman (2000)

2001–present|

* Sidney Poitier / Robert Redford (2001)
* Peter O'Toole (2002)
* Blake Edwards (2003)
* Sidney Lumet (2004)
* Robert Altman (2005)
* Ennio Morricone (2006)
* Robert F. Boyle (2007)
* Lauren Bacall / Roger Corman / Gordon Willis (2009)
* Kevin Brownlow / Jean-Luc Godard / Eli Wallach (2010)
* James Earl Jones / Dick Smith (2011)
* D. A. Pennebaker / Hal Needham / George Stevens Jr. (2012)
* Angela Lansbury / Steve Martin / Piero Tosi (2013)
* Jean-Claude Carrière / Hayao Miyazaki / Maureen O'Hara (2014)
* Spike Lee / Gena Rowlands (2015)
* Jackie Chan / Lynn Stalmaster / Anne V. Coates / Frederick Wiseman (2016)
* Charles Burnett / Owen Roizman / Donald Sutherland / Agnès Varda (2017)
* Marvin Levy / Lalo Schifrin / Cicely Tyson (2018)
* David Lynch / Wes Studi / Lina Wertmüller (2019)
* Samuel L. Jackson / Elaine May / Liv Ullmann (2021)
* Euzhan Palcy / Diane Warren / Peter Weir (2022)
* Angela Bassett / Mel Brooks / Carol Littleton (2023)
* Quincy Jones / Juliet Taylor (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series (Original Dramatic Score)

1960s|

* Laurence Rosenthal (1966)
* No Award (1967)
* Earle Hagen (1968)
* John Williams (1969)

1970s|

* Morton Stevens (1970)
* David Rose (1971)
* Pete Rugolo (1972)
* Charles Fox (1973)
* Morton Stevens (1974)
* Billy Goldenberg (1975)
* Alex North (1976)
* Quincy Jones and Gerald Fried (1977)
* Billy Goldenberg (1978)
* David Rose (1979)

1980s|

* Patrick Williams (1980)
* Bruce Broughton (1981)
* David Rose (1982)
* Bruce Broughton (1983)
* Bruce Broughton (1984)
* John Addison (1985)
* Arthur B. Rubinstein (1986)
* Joel Rosenbaum (1987)
* Lee Holdridge (1988)
* Joel Rosenbaum (1989)

1990s|

* Don Davis (1990)
* John Debney (1991)
* Bruce Babcock (1992)
* Joel McNeely (1993)
* Laurence Rosenthal (1994)
* Don Davis (1995)
* Hummie Mann (1996)
* John Debney and Louis Febre (1997)
* Christophe Beck (1998)
* Carl Johnson (1999)

2000s|

* Joseph LoDuca (2000)
* Jay Chattaway (2001)
* George Fenton (2002)
* Sean Callery (2003)
* Velton Ray Bunch (2004)
* Michael Giacchino (2005)
* Sean Callery (2006)
* George Fenton (2007)
* James Dooley (2008)
* Joseph LoDuca (2009)

2010s|

* Sean Callery (2010)
* Garth Neustadter (2011)
* John Lunn (2012)
* John Lunn (2013)
* Alan Silvestri (2014)
* Jeff Beal (2015)
* Mac Quayle (2016)
* Jeff Beal (2017)
* Ramin Djawadi (2018)
* Ramin Djawadi (2019)

2020s|

* Ludwig Göransson (2020)
* Ludwig Göransson (2021)
* Theodore Shapiro (2022)
* Cristobal Tapia de Veer (2023)
* Siddhartha Khosla (2024)

* v
* t
* e

Golden Globe Award for Best Original Score

1940s|

* Life with Father – Max Steiner (1947)
* The Red Shoes – Brian Easdale (1948)
* The Inspector General – Johnny Green (1949)

1950s|

* Sunset Boulevard – Franz Waxman (1950)
* September Affair – Victor Young (1951)
* High Noon – Dimitri Tiomkin (1952)
* On the Beach – Ernest Gold (1959)

1960s|

* The Alamo – Dimitri Tiomkin (1960)
* The Guns of Navarone – Dimitri Tiomkin (1961)
* To Kill a Mockingbird – Elmer Bernstein (1962)
* (1963)
* The Fall of the Roman Empire – Dimitri Tiomkin (1964)
* Doctor Zhivago – Maurice Jarre (1965)
* Hawaii – Elmer Bernstein (1966)
* Camelot – Frederick Loewe (1967)
* The Shoes of the Fisherman – Alex North (1968)
* Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid – Burt Bacharach (1969)

1970s|

* Love Story – Francis Lai (1970)
* Shaft – Isaac Hayes (1971)
* The Godfather – Nino Rota (1972)
* Jonathan Livingston Seagull – Neil Diamond (1973)
* The Little Prince – Alan Jay Lerner and Frederick Loewe (1974)
* Jaws – John Williams (1975)
* A Star is Born – Kenneth Ascher and Paul Williams (1976)
* Star Wars – John Williams (1977)
* Midnight Express – Giorgio Moroder (1978)
* Apocalypse Now – Carmine Coppola and Francis Ford Coppola (1979)

1980s|

* The Stunt Man – Dominic Frontiere (1980)
* No Award (1981)
* E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial – John Williams (1982)
* Flashdance – Giorgio Moroder (1983)
* A Passage to India – Maurice Jarre (1984)
* Out of Africa – John Barry (1985)
* The Mission – Ennio Morricone (1986)
* The Last Emperor – David Byrne, Ryuichi Sakamoto and Cong Su (1987)
* Gorillas in the Mist – Maurice Jarre (1988)
* The Little Mermaid – Alan Menken (1989)

1990s|

* The Sheltering Sky – Richard Horowitz and Ryuichi Sakamoto (1990)
* Beauty and the Beast – Alan Menken (1991)
* Aladdin – Alan Menken (1992)
* Heaven & Earth – Kitarō (1993)
* The Lion King – Hans Zimmer (1994)
* A Walk in the Clouds – Maurice Jarre (1995)
* The English Patient – Gabriel Yared (1996)
* Titanic – James Horner (1997)
* The Truman Show – Burkhard Dallwitz and Philip Glass (1998)
* The Legend of 1900 – Ennio Morricone (1999)

2000s|

* Gladiator – Lisa Gerrard, Hans Zimmer (2000)
* Moulin Rouge! – Craig Armstrong (2001)
* Frida – Elliot Goldenthal (2002)
* The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King – Howard Shore (2003)
* The Aviator – Howard Shore (2004)
* Memoirs of a Geisha – John Williams (2005)
* The Painted Veil – Alexandre Desplat (2006)
* Atonement – Dario Marianelli (2007)
* Slumdog Millionaire – A. R. Rahman (2008)
* Up – Michael Giacchino (2009)

2010s|

* The Social Network – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (2010)
* The Artist – Ludovic Bource (2011)
* Life of Pi – Mychael Danna (2012)
* All Is Lost – Alex Ebert (2013)
* The Theory of Everything – Jóhann Jóhannsson (2014)
* The Hateful Eight – Ennio Morricone (2015)
* La La Land – Justin Hurwitz (2016)
* The Shape of Water – Alexandre Desplat (2017)
* First Man – Justin Hurwitz (2018)
* Joker – Hildur Guðnadóttir (2019)

2020s|

* Soul – Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, and Jon Batiste (2020)
* Dune – Hans Zimmer (2021)
* Babylon – Justin Hurwitz (2022)
* Oppenheimer – Ludwig Göransson (2023)
* Challengers – Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (2024)

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