Dimitri Tiomkin
From Alfred Hitchcock Wiki
- born: 10/May/1894 (Kremenchuk, Poltava province, Ukraine)
- died: 11/Nov/1979 (London, England, UK) - complications of hip fracture
Biography
Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin was a film composer and conductor. Along with Max Steiner, Miklos Rozsa and Franz Waxman, Tiomkin was one of the most productive and decorated film music writers of Hollywood.
Tiomkin was born in Kremenchuk, Ukraine and educated at the St. Petersburg Conservatory in Russia. He emigrated in 1925 to the United States and became an American citizen in 1937. Although influenced by Eastern European music traditions, he was able to score typical American movies like Frank Capra's famous "Lost Horizon" (1937) or "It's a Wonderful Life" (1946) and also "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington" (1939), both with James Stewart.
But the score he will be ever associated with is that of Fred Zinnemann's "High Noon" (1952), which also won him a "Best Song" Oscar for "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'". In 1954, he won the Academy Award for best song of the John Wayne film "The High and the Mighty".
Many classic scores followed, many of which were also in Western movies, like "The High and the Mighty" (1954), "Giant" (1956), "Friendly Persuasion" (1956), "Gunfight at the O.K. Corral" (1957), "Rio Bravo" (1959), "The Alamo" (1960), "Town Without Pity" (1961) or "55 Days at Peking" (1963), "The Fall of the Roman Empire" (1964) and many more.
Besides cinema he was also active in writing for the small screen, writing some memorable television theme-songs, as for "Rawhide" (1959), "Gunslinger" (1961) or "The Wild Wild West" (1965).
Dimitri Tiomkin died in London, England in 1979 and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
Filmography
With Hitchcock...
- Shadow of a Doubt (1943) - composer
- Strangers on a Train (1951) - composer
- I Confess (1953) - composer
- Dial M for Murder (1954) - composer