Frank Sanucci; Composer

Frank Sanucci, a composer who wrote more than 150 musical scores for movies and ran a piano school in Tarzana, has died at an Oceanside hospital. He was 90.

A former longtime Burbank resident, Sanucci died Tuesday of heart failure, his wife, Virginia Lee Sanucci, said.

Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Sanucci came to the United States as a child and earned a degree from the Eastman Conservatory of Music in Rochester, N.Y. In 1934, he moved to California where he worked as a composer, writing musical scores for various studios, including Universal Pictures, Pathe Pictures and Republic Pictures.

His work includes scores for Tex Ritter films, such as “Song of the Gringo” (1936), and “Prison Break” (1938). Sanucci, the author of more than 200 music study books and compositions, and his wife operated a Tarzana piano school and children’s theater called Sanucci-Taylor Piano Game. The theater was called Le Petit Repertory Theatre Co. The school and children’s theater operated for 20 years, until 1989 when the couple moved to Vista, Calif.

Sanucci was a member of Musicians Union Local 47 and the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers.

He is survived by his wife of 11 years; stepson Mark Alan Taylor of Eureka, Calif.; stepdaughter Claudia Lee Cook of Topanga; brother Albert Sanucci of Vista; four step-grandchildren and two step-great-grandchildren.

A funeral Mass is scheduled for 11 a.m. today at St. Finbar Catholic Church, 2010 W. Olive Ave. in Burbank, where Sanucci had been a member. Burial will follow at San Fernando Mission Cemetery in Mission Hills. The Valley Funeral Home in Burbank is handling the arrangements. Donations can be made in Sanucci’s name to the City of Hope.