Lalo Schifrin, award-winning composer known for ‘Mission: Impossible’ theme, dies at 93
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Lalo Schifrin, the six-time Oscar nominee and prolific composer best known for his Grammy-winning “Mission: Impossible” theme, has died. He was 93.
Schifrin died Thursday morning at a hospital in Los Angeles, his son Will Schifrin, a writer and producer, told The Times. He reportedly died of complications from pneumonia.
The Argentine-born composer infused elements of jazz, rock and funk into classical orchestral music and is credited with helping to change the sound of movies. Schifrin was Oscar-nominated for his scores on the films “Cool Hand Luke” (1967), “The Fox” (1967), “Voyage of the Damned” (1976), “The Amityville Horror” (1979) and “The Sting II” (1983). He also earned a song nomination for “People Alone” from the 1980 drama “The Competition.” In 2018, Schifrin received an honorary Oscar.
Schifrin wrote more than 100 scores for film and television over the course of his Hollywood career, including for the movies “Dirty Harry” (1971), “THX 1138” (1971), “Enter the Dragon” (1973) and the “Rush Hour” trilogy, as well as TV shows including “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.” and “Starsky & Hutch.”
On Sunday evening, many of Hollywood’s biggest power players will gather at the Ray Dolby Ballroom in Los Angeles for the motion picture academy’s 10th Governors Awards ceremony, a chance to honor filmmaking luminaries for their lifetime contributions to the art form and, for Oscar hopefuls, a key early stop on the awards season campaign circuit.
“I learned to be a chameleon,” Schifrin told The Times in 2018. “In motion pictures, the real creator is the screenwriter and the director and the producer. I have to work for what they have made. Like a chameleon, I do whatever is necessary.”
In 2011, Schifrin modestly described himself as a “music maker.” While the catchy theme for the spy series “Mission: Impossible” remains one of his best-known pieces, Schifrin told The Times “it was just work.”
“For everything I’ve done, I did my best,” Schifrin said in 2016. “I like what I did. I don’t think it’s a masterpiece, but it’s OK. ... If people like it, to the point of embracing it, great. That doesn’t happen too often.”
Born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1932, Schifrin was exposed to music from a young age. His father, Luis, served as the concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colón. And Schifrin was just 5 years old when a trip to the movies with his grandmother made him realize that it was the music that made the horror film so scary.
Lalo Schifrin, the Argentine-born composer responsible for the propulsive, infectious theme for “Mission: Impossible,” as well as such classic film scores as “Bullitt,” “Cool Hand Luke” and “Dirty Harry,” says he’s retired from the movie-music grind.
Schifrin began studying piano under Enrique Barenboim, the father of pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim, when he was 6. He discovered and fell in love with modern American jazz as a teenager. At the suggestion of one of his teachers, he applied for a scholarship to attend the Paris Conservatory. During his time there, he made money playing at jazz clubs.
After returning to Buenos Aires, Schifrin started his own jazz band to perform at concerts and on TV. He eventually met American jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, who invited him to work for him in the U.S. In 1963, while he was working with Gillespie after moving to New York, Schifrin was offered a job in Hollywood.
“My first movie was called ‘Rhino,’” Schifrin told The Times in 2011. “It was a low-budget movie, but it was the beginning.”
Schifrin is survived by his wife, Donna, and his children, William, Frances and Ryan.
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