David Raksin, the accalimed film composer who earned Oscar nominations for his work on Forever Amber (1947) and The Bad and the Beautiful (1952), and whose memorable theme song for Otto Preminger's classic Laura (1944) became one of the most recorded melodies in history, died of heart failure on August 9 at his home in Van Nuys, California. He was 92.

He was born in Philadelphia on August 4, 1912. His father was a music store operator who steered his son toward piano lessons at age six. By high school, young David was leading a dance band for the local CBS affiliate, and after graduation, he majored in music composition at the University of Pennsylvania.

In the mid-'30s, Raksin would work his way to Broadway doing the arrangements for musicals when Charlie Caplin invited him to Hollywood to work on Modern Times (1936). After receiving credited as an arranger on the film, Raksin's film career was off.

After composing the incidental music for films like Girl Crazy and The Gang's All Here (both 1943), he struck oil when he composed the theme for Preminger's Laura (1945), a stylish, brooding romantic mystery about a detective (Dana Andrews), who falls for a woman (Gene Tierney) as he investigates her apparent murder. With lyrics by Johnny Mercer, Raksin's composition has since been recorded over 500 times, and is one of the great songs from the film noir era.

Raksin's continued to work on A-List pictures: The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (1947), Force of Evil (1948), and Carrie (1952), but his work on smaller films was equally interesting: The Big Combo (1955), Al Capone (1959), Too Late Blues (1961, all three films offered a fine hybrid of blues, jazz,with his classical); and his music for Will Penny (1968), and What's the Matter with Helen? (1971) was also notable. He spent the remainder his career composing for television and teaching classes on composition for motion pictures at UCLA and USC.

Raksin is survived by his son Alex, a pulitzer-prize winnig editorial writer for The Los Angeles Times; his daughter, Valentina; and three grandchildren.

by Michael T. Toole