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Alex North (born Isadore Soifer, December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including A Streetcar Named Desire (one of the first jazz-based film scores), Viva Zapata!, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
Alex North (born Dec. 4, 1910, Chester, Pa., U.S.—died Sept. 8, 1991, Pacific Palisades, Calif.) was a U.S. film composer and conductor. North studied at the Curtis Institute and Juilliard. In the early 1930s he traveled to Moscow and became the sole American member of the Union of Soviet Composers. He composed ballet scores for Martha Graham ...
- The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica
Alex North (1910-1991) was an American composer who worked in various genres, including jazz, classical and film music. He was nominated for 15 Oscars and won for his lifetime achievement, and composed scores for Spartacus, A Streetcar Named Desire, Cleopatra and more.
- January 1, 1
- Chester, Pennsylvania, USA
- January 1, 1
- Los Angeles, California, USA
Official site devoted to film composer Alex North, including biography, filmography and discography as well as television and other work by this versatile composer.
He was a composer best known for his many movie scores, including A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), Spartacus (1960), Cleopatra (1963) and Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966). North was the first composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award, but never won a competitive Oscar despite 15 nominations.
Alex North. Music Department: Spartacus. Alex North studied music at the Curtis Institute of Philadelphia, then won a scholarship to Juilliard in New York (1929) and the Moscow Conservatoire (1933), making him the first-ever American to become a member of the Union of Soviet Composers.
Renowned composer Alex North shunned publicity and Hollywood careerism. But he nevertheless accumulated 15 Oscar nominations and a Lifetime Achievement Oscar for his work in the film industry. And he is the first and thus far only composer to have received this honor for his music.
