Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini
Henry Mancini (1924 –1994) was an American composer, arranger, conductor, pianist, and flautist, whose compositions appeared in over 100 Hollywood film and television productions. He was nominated for 18 Academy Awards (winning 4), 72 Grammy Awards (winning 20), 2 Emmy Awards, and won a Golden Globe. Mancini recorded over 90 albums, in styles ranging from big band to light classical to pop, and was a concert performer, conducting over 600 symphony performances around the world including the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. After his death at the age of 70, he was awarded a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award.
Henry Mancini was born Enrico Nicola Mancini in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio and raised in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. He learned the piccolo at age 8, and after hearing Rudolph Kopp's score in the 1935 Cecil B. DeMille film The Crusades he decided (at the age of 10) that a career in film music composition was his destiny. To this end he studied piano and orchestral arrangement under concert pianist and conductor Max Adkins, and eventually attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York, education which was interrupted when he enlisted in the military during World War II. There he made connections with the Glenn Miller band and was assigned to the 28th Air Force Band before being reassigned overseas to the 1306th Engineers Brigade in France. After the war in 1946 he became a pianist and arranger for the newly re-formed Glenn Miller Orchestra, led by Tex Beneke, and toured on the road for 5 years, marrying the singer Ginny O’Conner.
In 1952, Mancini joined the Universal Pictures music department in Hollywood and during the next six years, he contributed music to over 100 movies (some unaccredited) including The Glenn Miller Story (for which he received his first Academy Award nomination) and The Benny Goodman Story. A massive studio reorganization in 1958 (due to the popularity of television) caused Mancini to become an independent composer/arranger. A chance meeting with writer/producer Blake Edwards led to Mancini’s first major television music production, Peter Gunn in 1959. Edwards and Mancini set up their own music publishing company (Northridge Music Co) and collaborated on 30 films. Mancini retained the song composing rights to most of his own compositions (unheard of in those days), including his film scores, which he usually re-recorded for the LP format.
During the next 35 years Mancini wrote and scored music for many block buster movies and television series which produced several major song hits, many written with the renowned lyricist Johnny Mercer. The movies included Breakfast at Tiffany's (“Moon River”), Days of Wine and Roses (“Days of Wine and Roses”), Charade (“Charade”), Dear Heart (“Dear Heart”), The Pink Panther (“The Pink Panther Theme”), The Great Race (“The Sweetheart Tree”), Two for the Road (“Two For The Road”), Darling Lili (“I’ll Give You Three Guesses”), and 10 (“It’s Easy To Say”). The television series included Peter Gunn (“Peter Gunn Theme”, “Dreamsville”), Mr. Lucky (“Mr. Lucky”), Newhart (“Newhart Main Title Theme”), and The Thorn Birds (“Anywhere the Heart Goes”).
Mancini also became a world-renowned conductor, and toured during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, conducting his own music as well as that of others. He conducted many notable orchestras worldwide eventually forming his own orchestra which he brought on the road. He also toured several times with Johnny Mathis and with Andy Williams, who had each sung many of Mancini's songs.
In 1989, his 65th year, Henry Mancini published the autobiography Did They Mention the Music which detailed his life, rise to fame, his relationships in the music and Hollywood film worlds, and his family. In 2004, the United States Postal Service honored Mancini with a thirty-seven cent commemorative stamp. His signature superhit, “Moon River”, remains today as one of the most performed songs of all time.
Henry Mancini’s songs and scores appear in the following Hollywood productions for film and television.
Henry Mancini was born Enrico Nicola Mancini in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio and raised in West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. He learned the piccolo at age 8, and after hearing Rudolph Kopp's score in the 1935 Cecil B. DeMille film The Crusades he decided (at the age of 10) that a career in film music composition was his destiny. To this end he studied piano and orchestral arrangement under concert pianist and conductor Max Adkins, and eventually attended the Juilliard School of Music in New York, education which was interrupted when he enlisted in the military during World War II. There he made connections with the Glenn Miller band and was assigned to the 28th Air Force Band before being reassigned overseas to the 1306th Engineers Brigade in France. After the war in 1946 he became a pianist and arranger for the newly re-formed Glenn Miller Orchestra, led by Tex Beneke, and toured on the road for 5 years, marrying the singer Ginny O’Conner.
In 1952, Mancini joined the Universal Pictures music department in Hollywood and during the next six years, he contributed music to over 100 movies (some unaccredited) including The Glenn Miller Story (for which he received his first Academy Award nomination) and The Benny Goodman Story. A massive studio reorganization in 1958 (due to the popularity of television) caused Mancini to become an independent composer/arranger. A chance meeting with writer/producer Blake Edwards led to Mancini’s first major television music production, Peter Gunn in 1959. Edwards and Mancini set up their own music publishing company (Northridge Music Co) and collaborated on 30 films. Mancini retained the song composing rights to most of his own compositions (unheard of in those days), including his film scores, which he usually re-recorded for the LP format.
During the next 35 years Mancini wrote and scored music for many block buster movies and television series which produced several major song hits, many written with the renowned lyricist Johnny Mercer. The movies included Breakfast at Tiffany's (“Moon River”), Days of Wine and Roses (“Days of Wine and Roses”), Charade (“Charade”), Dear Heart (“Dear Heart”), The Pink Panther (“The Pink Panther Theme”), The Great Race (“The Sweetheart Tree”), Two for the Road (“Two For The Road”), Darling Lili (“I’ll Give You Three Guesses”), and 10 (“It’s Easy To Say”). The television series included Peter Gunn (“Peter Gunn Theme”, “Dreamsville”), Mr. Lucky (“Mr. Lucky”), Newhart (“Newhart Main Title Theme”), and The Thorn Birds (“Anywhere the Heart Goes”).
Mancini also became a world-renowned conductor, and toured during the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, conducting his own music as well as that of others. He conducted many notable orchestras worldwide eventually forming his own orchestra which he brought on the road. He also toured several times with Johnny Mathis and with Andy Williams, who had each sung many of Mancini's songs.
In 1989, his 65th year, Henry Mancini published the autobiography Did They Mention the Music which detailed his life, rise to fame, his relationships in the music and Hollywood film worlds, and his family. In 2004, the United States Postal Service honored Mancini with a thirty-seven cent commemorative stamp. His signature superhit, “Moon River”, remains today as one of the most performed songs of all time.
Henry Mancini’s songs and scores appear in the following Hollywood productions for film and television.
- Under the Gun (1951)
- The Raiders (1952)
- The Glenn Miller Story (1953)
- Abbott and Costello Go to Mars (1953)
- Law and Order (1953)
- City Beneath the Sea (1953)
- Destry (1954)
- Creature from the Black Lagoon (1954)
- The Private War of Major Benson (1955)
- Tarantula (1955)
- The Benny Goodman Story (1956)
- The Creature Walks Among Us (1956)
- Rock, Pretty Baby (1956)
- Mister Cory (1957)
- Summer Love (1958)
- Touch of Evil (1958)
- Damn Citizen (1958)
- The Big Beat (1958)
- Peter Gunn (1959)
- Mr. Lucky (1960)
- High Time (1960)
- Bachelor in Paradise (1961)
- The Great Impostor (1961)
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
- Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
- Hatari! (1962)
- Mr. Hobbs Takes a Vacation (1962)
- Experiment in Terror (1962)
- Soldier in the Rain (1963)
- Charade (1963)
- The Pink Panther (1963)
- Dear Heart (1964)
- A Shot in the Dark (1964)
- Man's Favorite Sport? (1964)
- The Great Race (1965)
- Moment to Moment (1965)
- Arabesque (1966)
- What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? (1966)
- Gunn (1967)
- Two for the Road (1967)
- Wait Until Dark (1967)
- The Party (1968)
- Me, Natalie (1969)
- Gaily, Gaily (1969)
- Sunflower (1970)
- Sometimes a Great Notion (1970)
- The Hawaiians (1970)
- Darling Lili (1970)
- The Molly Maguires (1970)
- The Night Visitor (1971)
- Frenzy (Rejected Score) (1972)
- Oklahoma Crude (1973)
- The Thief Who Came To Dinner (1973)
- Visions of Eight (1973)
- The Girl from Petrovka (1974)
- 99 and 44/100% Dead (1974)
- The White Dawn (1974)
- Jacqueline Susann's Once Is Not Enough (1975)
- The Return of the Pink Panther (1975)
- The Great Waldo Pepper (1975)
- What’s Happening (1976)
- The Moneychangers (1976)
- Silver Streak (1976)
- W.C. Fields and Me (1976)
- The Pink Panther Strikes Again (1976)
- House Calls (1978)
- Angela (1978)
- Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? (1978)
- Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978)
- The Prisoner of Zenda (1979)
- Nightwing (1979)
- 10 (1979)
- Little Miss Marker (1980)
- A Change of Seasons (1980)
- The Shadow Box (1980)
- Back Roads (1981)
- S.O.B. (1981)
- Condorman (1981)
- Mommie Dearest (1981)
- Victor Victoria (1982)
- Trail of the Pink Panther (1982)
- Curse of the Pink Panther (1983)
- Second Thoughts (1983)
- Better Late Than Never (1983)
- The Man Who Loved Women (1983)
- The Thorn Birds (1983)
- Newhart (1983)
- Harry & Son (1984)
- Hotel (1984)
- Remington Steele (1984)
- Lifeforce (1985)
- Santa Claus: The Movie (1985)
- The Great Mouse Detective (1986)
- A Fine Mess (1986)
- That's Life! (1986)
- Blind Date (1987)
- The Glass Menagerie (1987)
- Without a Clue (1988)
- Sunset (1988)
- Physical Evidence (1989)
- Welcome Home (1989)
- Ghost Dad (1990)
- Fear (1990)
- Switch (1991)
- Married to It (1991)
- Tom and Jerry: The Movie (1992)
- Son of the Pink Panther (1993)