Hugo Friedhofer
b. 3 May 1901, San Francisco, California, USA, d. 17 May 1981. After an early career as a painter, Friedhofer turned to another branch of the arts, taking up the cello and studying composition under Domenico Brescia. He wrote music to accompany silent films and in 1929 went to Hollywood to arrange and direct music for the new sound films. When procedures changed and composers were hired to write specifically for films, Friedhofer was well-suited for a new role, and was called upon to orchestrate the music for KEEP YOUR SUNNY SIDE UP. He later orchestrated music composed by acclaimed and much better-known people such as Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Max Steiner and Franz Waxman. The films on which he worked for these composers are numerous and his contribution to their success undoubted, if undervalued. As a film composer in his own right, Friedhofer's first complete score was for the 1938 film, THE ADVENTURES OF MARCO POLO. He also composed for films such as Brewster's Millions, JOAN OF ARC, BODY AND SOUL, NO MAN OF HER OWN, HONDO, VERA CRUZ, YOUNG LIONSand THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES(FOR which he won an Oscar), and ONE-EYED JACKS- just a few of a very long list. Greatly admired by fellow musicians as diverse as Paul Glass and John Lewis, Friedhofer remained almost unknown to the world outside. Gene Lees, a longtime friend, wrote movingly of him in his book, SINGERS AND THE SONG.