John Strauss, Composer of Memorable TV Themes, Passes
In addition to winning a Primetime Emmy as a sound editor, Strauss composed the theme music for the series Car 54, Where Are You? and The Phil SIlvers Show.
John Strauss, a Primetime Emmy winner whose work for television included composing memorable themes for such series as Car 54, Where Are You? and The Phil Silvers Show, died February 14, 2011, in Los Angeles. He was 90.
According to news reports, Strauss passed away from complications of Parkinson’s disease.
Strauss won an Emmy for sound editing in 1978 for his work on the made-for-television movie The Amazing Howard Hughes, and a Grammy award in 1984 for producing the soundtrack album of the film Amadeus.
In addition, Strauss was the music coordinator on Amadeus, in which he also appeared briefly on screen as a conductor, complete with powdered wig.
Car 54, Where Are You?, which aired on NBC from 1961 to 1963, starred Fred Gwynne and Joe E. Ross as comical New York City police officers.
Strauss was born in New York on April 28, 1920. He began playing piano as a child. During World War II he served in the Army in France and North Africa. After the war he studied composition with at Yale with Paul Hindemith, the renowned violinist, violist and composer.
In 1961, the CBS series Camera Three aired The Accused, a one-woman opera with music by Strauss with a libretto by Sheppard Kerman. The opera focused on the Salem witch trials; Julius Rudel conducted and soprano Patricia Neway sang.
As a music editor, his television credits included L.A. Law and the made-for-TV movies Somebody’s Daughter, The Wrong Man, Miss Evers’ Boys and Out of Annie’s Past.
His feature film credits as music editor included Take the Money and Run, Bananas, Hair, The Blues Brothers, Zoot Suit and Ragtime.
Strauss’s marriage to actress Charlotte Rae ended in divorce. His partner afterward, Lionel Friedman, died in 2003.
He is survived by a son and three grandchildren.