Fred Karlin, 67; Eclectic Musician Won Oscar, Emmy

Oscar- and Emmy-winning composer Fred Karlin, who scored more than 130 motion pictures and movies for television, has died. He was 67.

Karlin, who also wrote books on movie music, performed and recorded, and made his own film, died March 26 in Culver City of cancer.

The eclectic musician, at ease with jazz, blues, folk, rock, classical, medieval and other historic musical genres, shared an Academy Award for best song in 1971. The song, “For All We Know” from the 1970 film “Lovers and Other Strangers,” became a Top 10 hit for the Carpenters.

Karlin collected three other Academy Award nominations, including one for the music to Dory Previn’s “Come Saturday Morning” from “The Sterile Cuckoo” in 1969, which became a Top 20 recording for the Sandpipers. Other nominations were for songs used in the 1970 film “The Baby Maker” and in the 1972 “The Little Ark.”

The composer earned an Emmy for his score for the 1974 television presentation “The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman” and 11 other nominations.

His compositions for the 1977 television movie “The Minstrel Man” won him an NAACP Image Award.

Karlin co-wrote (with his orchestration teacher Rayburn Wright) an authoritative textbook on film scoring, “On the Track,” in 1990 and four years later wrote “Listening to Movies: The Film Lover’s Guide to Film Music.” He had completed another book, “100 Great Film Scores,” scheduled for publication next year.

Former Times entertainment editor Charles Champlin said of the 1994 book: “Fred Karlin has achieved two things wonderfully well. He makes the how of film music intelligible to the most tone-deaf layman. But more significantly, he communicates the why of film music -- the philosophies that dictate its use.”

Karlin made his own documentary in 1995, directing, producing and co-editing “Film Music Masters: Jerry Goldsmith” about the composer. He also released two CD collections of film themes in 1995 and 1997.

Born Frederick James Karlin in Chicago, he began playing trumpet and studying jazz composition in his teens. After graduating from Amherst College, he worked as a composer and arranger for Benny Goodman.

In New York City, Karlin composed and conducted with a group organized by his future wife, Megan Wells-Stagg, who is sometimes credited as Tylwyth Kymry. With Karlin delving into musical archeology, the group made albums of everything from Egyptian music to Civil War songs. Karlin also began his vast collection of obscure recorded music -- player piano rolls, records of all sizes and speeds, and Edison cylinders dating to the 1890s.

He made his film composition debut with “Up the Down Staircase” in 1967, quickly following with scores for “Yours, Mine and Ours,” “The Stalking Moon,” “The Sterile Cuckoo” and “Lovers and Other Strangers.” The work brought the Karlins to Los Angeles in 1969.

He is survived by his wife; three children, Eric and Wendy Karlin and Kathryn Velasquez; a brother, Kenneth; and five grandchildren.

Any memorial donations may be sent to the American Heritage Center, University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyo. 82071.