Composer Jerry Goldsmith Dead at 75
Emmy-winning composer Jerry Goldsmith, who wrote the scores from films such as Planet of the Apes and L.A. Confidential, to television shows like The Waltons and The Twilight Zone, died July 22. He was 75.
Goldsmith wrote the themes for Dr. Kildare and Barnaby Jones, and a 45-second fanfare that is used in Academy Awards telecasts.He also created music for episodes of The Twilight Zone, Perry Mason and Gunsmoke.
Goldsmith was interviewed by the Archive of American Television on May 8, 2002 by Jon Burlingame. Here are excerpts from the interview:
On beginning in television:
I started back in the fifties doing these dramatic shows that were not only made for the smaller screen but, they were also were shot live and you could only do so much. Climax tried to imitate movies and it was a disaster every time they tried to do that.
On how television differs from feature films:
Television, because of the nature is much more truncated and much more compressed and condensed and you have to say what you want to say in a more compressed style. The scenes don’t run as long and tend to be shorter and you have to remember you’re writing for a more intimate medium. I think that’s where television shines -- in telling these stories that are of a more intimate nature. It is a smaller screen. …And therefore I think that one has to temper the music for that medium.
On his proudest achievements:
I think definitely Masada and The Red Pony and The Waltons believe it or not. I think that the most special time were those days in the fifties and the live television. That I was part of that epic making that I was there with these writers and directors and actors too that were part of probably one of the most important times in drama.
His advice to a young composer who wants to work in television or film:
It would be basically that there is no show, no job that is too unimportant for you to do, to tackle. I teach at UCLA in a graduate course and I find these young people take six months or whatever it is and they’re ready to give me an $80 million feature to score. And I say: you take whatever comes along. I don’t care whether it’s sweeping up the library but be humble enough to take whatever you can get and you go from there. I just feel that everybody is too impatient now. Nothing came my way that I wasn’t prepared for and things I didn’t get I wasn’t really prepared for them and I was feeling sad that I didn’t get this picture or this job or that. In hindsight, I wasn’t ready for it. I was fortunate that those things didn’t happen. I took lesser things. I did lesser things but I was always learning and I think that one has to realize that life is a learning process. That one never stops. You start learning from the day you’re born and you stop learning the day you die. But that’s the most exciting thing about life as far as I’m concerned. We are constantly gaining new knowledge. So young people should be patient and things will happen when they’re supposed to happen.