Henry Mancini

Henry Mancini is one of those rare film composers whose music became well-known in the mainstream. He is best known for his jazz and pop-inflected tunes, including the immortal themes for Peter Gunn and The Pink Panther. Mancini spent a year at Juilliard before he got drafted into Word War II. Following the war, Mancini scored a slew of low-budget films, including the horror/sci-fi cult classics Creature From the Black Lagoon and This Island Earth. Another early assignment was for Orson Welles's Touch of Evil. Mancini soon became typecast as a composer of light romances, including Breakfast at Tiffany's. The song "Moon River" from that film is only one of many of his popular songs. But Mancini also wrote full-bodied orchestral scores, from the grand, majestic themes of Lifeforce to the rollicking adventure of Disney's The Great Mouse Detective. He was slated to score Tim Burton's Ed Wood, but sadly passed away in 1994 before he could score it. If nothing else, his music lives on in marching bands across the country, but his talent clearly went far beyond such jazzy staples.

Condorman
Days of Wine and Roses
The Great Mouse Detective*
Hatari!
Lifeforce*
Once Is Not Enough
Santa Claus: The Movie**
Silver Streak
The White Dawn