The world of film music lost one of its most gifted composers when Jerry Goldsmith died on July 21st. In a prolific career of creating scores for movies and television, Goldsmith racked up numerous honors including 17 Oscar nominations and one Oscar -- for The Omen (1976).

Born in Pasadena, Calif., in 1929, Goldsmith grew up in Los Angeles and began studying piano at the age of six. By the time he was 14 he was studying composition, theory and counterpoint. He fell under the influence of Miklos Rozsa after attending classes taught by the legendary film composer at the University of Southern California. He began composing for radio and later scored such TV shows as Dr. Kildare, Playhouse 90 and The Man from U.N.C.L.E..

Goldsmith began scoring theatrical films in the mid-1950s and quickly rose to the top of his profession. His Oscar-nominated scores range from Freud (1962) to Mulan (1998) and also include A Patch of Blue (1965), The Sand Pebbles (1966), Patton (1970), Papillon (1973), Chinatown (1974), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Basic Instinct (1992) and L.A. Confidential (1997).

Goldsmith was a master of many moods and styles. His music for A Patch of Blue has a gentle sweetness befitting the film's story, while his score for The First Great Train Robbery (1979) is rambunctious, breezy and filled with humor. The brooding Goldsmith score for the prison drama Papillon inspired one fan to dub him "the king of orchestra and melody." The composer enjoyed conducting concerts of his music and performed all over the world, enjoying an especially close relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra.

The movies in TCM's tribute to Jerry Goldsmith are Papillon (1973), Hour of the Gun (1967), The First Great Train Robbery (1979) and A Patch of Blue (1965).

by Roger Fristoe