Composer Thomas Newman Wins BMI’s Career Award

Composer Thomas Newman received the Richard Kirk Award for Outstanding Career Achievement at Broadcast Music Inc.’s annual Film and Television Awards dinner Monday night at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel.

Newman, 44, is a four-time Oscar nominee for the films “American Beauty,” “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Little Women” and “Unstrung Heroes.” His other scores have included “The Green Mile,” “The Player,” “The Horse Whisperer,” “Scent of a Woman” and “Fried Green Tomatoes.”

He is the youngest son of legendary 20th Century Fox music director Alfred Newman, who died in 1970. Speaking about his father, Newman said: “I hope he’d be proud. For better or for worse, with absolutely no intention [of doing so], I kind of ended up in the same profession as him, so his influence on me has clearly been deep and profound.” Newman works in the same studio where his father composed.

Newman also picked up three BMI Film Music Awards for his work on last year’s “American Beauty” and “The Green Mile” and the current “Erin Brockovich.” Other composers who received multiple awards included Jerry Goldsmith (“The Haunting,” “The Mummy”) and, for their television work, W.G. “Snuffy” Walden (“The West Wing,” “The Drew Carey Show,” “Providence”), Mike Post (“NYPD Blue,” “Law & Order”) and Bruce Miller (“Frasier,” “Becker”). Awards are based on box-office and ratings performance of the movie and TV shows during the last 12 months.

BMI is a performing rights organization that represents more than 250,000 composers, songwriters and music publishers. The Richard Kirk Award, named after a longtime BMI executive, has been given annually since 1986.