Victor Young

Born in Chicago to a musical family and orphaned young, Victor Young was sent to Poland as a boy to study violin at the Warsaw Conservatory, and he made his debut as a soloist with the Warsaw Philharmonic before the upheavals of the First World War and the Russian Revolution sent him back to America. He built a first career as a concertmaster, arranger, and bandleader, and became one of the most sought-after figures in radio and popular music before Hollywood claimed him in the 1930s.

Extraordinarily prolific, Young scored hundreds of films and possessed one of the surest melodic gifts of his generation. His themes had a way of slipping loose from their movies to become enduring standards: Stella by Starlight grew out of his score for the ghost story The Uninvited, My Foolish Heart and When I Fall in Love from later pictures, and Golden Earrings and Love Letters from others still. As a dramatic composer he brought sweep and tenderness to For Whom the Bell Tolls, The Quiet Man, Shane, and Samson and Delilah.

Yet the ultimate prize eluded him with almost cruel persistence. He was nominated for the Academy Award twenty-two times without a win - at one point nominated four times in a single year - a record of frustration unmatched in the music categories. Then, in 1956, he completed the buoyant globe-trotting score for Around the World in 80 Days and, weeks later, died of a cerebral hemorrhage in Palm Springs at fifty-seven. The following spring the Academy finally honored him, awarding him the Oscar posthumously, his statuette accepted on his behalf. His melodies, sung and recorded by generations of artists, long outlived the man and most of the films they were written for.