Considered one of the most sophisticated and innovative of film composers, Bronislau Kaper is best remembered as the creator of two jazz standards bearing the names of the films in which they were heard: Green Dolphin Street (1947) and Invitation (1952) (although "Invitation" was first heard in another film for which Kaper created the score, 1950'sA Life of Her Own). However, he scored dozens of other Hollywood films, especially at MGM where his credits included such important titles as Gaslight (1944), The Red Badge of Courage (1951), Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956), The Brothers Karamazov (1958), Butterfield 8 (1960) and Home from the Hill (1960).

Kaper, who specialized in gracefully romantic scores, won an Oscar® for his lilting contributions to Lili (1953), the captivating fable of carnival life starring Leslie Caron. He also was nominated for The Chocolate Soldier (1941), sharing the honor with Herbert Stothart for this Nelson Eddy/Risë Stevens musical comedy about marital jealousy; and for Mutiny on the Bounty (1962), an epic remake of the great seafaring adventure. A song created for the latter film by Kaper and Paul Francis Webster, "Love Song from Mutiny on the Bounty (Follow Me)" also was nominated.

Born in Warsaw, Poland, in 1902, Kaper was a child prodigy at the piano and at age 21 graduated from The Chopin Music School. He established himself in Berlin as a writer of cabaret songs, then an arranger and composer for stage and film. He left Germany in 1933 as the Nazis rose to power, living and working in Paris for two years. In 1935 he signed with MGM and relocated to Hollywood after studio head Louis B. Mayer heard one of his compositions. One of his first assignments at MGM was writing the title tune for San Francisco (1936), a song that attracted the attention of the public and eventually became a standard.

Kaper created his scores at the piano and depended upon other musicians to orchestrate them. He remained at MGM longer than any other composer - 26 years. When the studio system fell apart during the 1950s, he worked on a free-lance basis and continued to score major films including Lord Jim (1965). His final film credit was A Flea in Her Ear (1968). He died in 1983.

by Roger Frisoe