Jeff Alexander; Composer for Films and Television

Jeff Alexander, 79, a composer who scored more than 40 films and a dozen television shows, among them “The Tender Trap,” “The Rounders,” “Support Your Local Sheriff,” “Dirty Dingus Magee,” “Please Don’t Eat the Daisies,” “Julia,” and such Elvis Presley pictures as “Jailhouse Rock,” “Kid Galahad” and “Speedway.” A former arranger for such big bands as Horace Heidt’s, Alexander also did arrangements for radio shows including “Your Hit Parade” and “Amos ‘n’ Andy.” Alexander, who primarily wrote or arranged background music, transitions between songs and other incidental music, was one of the founders of the Screen Composers Guild and served two terms on the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. In Whidbey Island, Wash., on Dec. 23 of cancer.