Jerry Goldsmith, the acclaimed composer who received a phenomenal 17 Academy Award nominations for his memorable film scores and bagged his lone victory for The Omen (1976), died at his Beverly Hills home of cancer on July 21. He was 75.

Born on February 10, 1929 in Pasadena, California, Goldsmith took lessons in classical piano and composition as a child. After graduating high school, he took music classes at USC with Miklos Rozsa, the composer for Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1946), and by 1950, he had found work at CBS as a clerk typist. Within a few years, he progressed to composing scores for live television programs like General Electric Theater and Playhouse 90, and popular taped programs of the day: Gunsmoke, Wagon Train, Twilight Zone and Thriller.

By 1962, Goldsmith was ready to move into cinema, and earned his first screen credit for the Kirk Douglas vehicle Lonely Are the Brave (1962). That same year, his work for the biopic Freud (1962) starring Montgomery Clift promptly garnered him his first Oscar® nomination. After that, Goldsmith's prolific output of fine music for many popular motion pictures created a resume to be envied: Seconds, The Sand Pebbles (both 1966), Planet of the Apes (1968, highly innovative work, where he used stainless steel mixing bowls to create a primitive, percussive sound), Patton (1970), Chinatown (1974, where, as a last minute replacement, he finished the music in just 10 days!) The Omen (1976), Poltergeist (1982), Basic Instinct (1992), L.A. Confidential (1997), and The Mummy (1999), just to name a few. Throughout it all, Goldsmith's scores never overwhelmed the narrative, but created a subtle tension, as exemplified by the thriller Seconds; and his most deserved Oscar® victory for The Omen.

In later years, Goldsmith returned to television when he scored the telecast for the last seven Academy Award telecasts. He is survived by his wife of 32 years, Carol; sons, Aaron and Joel; daughters Ellen, Carrie and Jennifer; six grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.

by Michael T. Toole