Mancini, Henry (1924-1994)
Although he was a highly gifted composer/arranger capable of scoring films of any genre, Henry Mancini is probably best known to the general public for the jazzy, light-hearted, cocktail-confection themes from Peter Gunn and The Pink Panther, and as the melodist behind such wistful songs as "Moon River" and "The Days of Wine and Roses." A product of the big-band era who ended up in Hollywood in the early 1950s, Mancini served his cinematic apprenticeship as a staff composer (mostly for "B" movies) at Universal. His big break came in 1958 when writer-director Blake Edwards offered him the opportunity to score the private-eye series, Peter Gunn. Mancini's main-title theme pioneered the use of jazz music in TV background music and became a hit single from one of the bestselling LP's of all time. Soon Mancini scores were gracing some of Hollywood's most stylish big-screen productions, and his music was almost as much a star of these films as Audrey Hepburn, Cary Grant, and John Wayne. Record albums and concert tours helped to make the shy musician from Pennsylvania one of the few film-composerswhose name had public recognition. Although Mancini died suddenly in 1994 while working on his first Broadway musical, his legacy is a lasting one.
This page contains 201 words.
Mancini, Henry (1924-1994) article
Read the rest of this article.
This article contains 1,633 words
(approx. 5 pages at 300 words per page).
Order our Henry Mancini Article
