Ron Goodwin
Ronald Alfred Goodwin (
February 17,
1925 â€"
January 8,
2003) was a
British composer and
conductor best known for his
film scores.
Ron Goodwin was born in
Plymouth in
Devon. He was taught the
piano at an early age, and studied the
trumpet in
London at the
Guildhall School of Music. His first job in music was as a copier and
arranger working for a variety of publishing companies and bands, including some attached to the
British Broadcasting Corporation. He later worked as a conductor in recording sessions for a number of
popular music artists,
Petula Clark among them.
In the
1950s he joined
Parlophone, and worked alongside
George Martin there. He continued to accompany artists such as
Peter Sellers, for example on his "
Goodness Gracious Me" album, as well as beginning to broadcast and release records with his own orchestra, the 'Ron Goodwin Concert Orchestra', from which came a string of popular
LPs.
Goodwin was also a guest conductor with a number of symphony orchestras, including the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and the
Detroit Symphony Orchestra. He usually conducted film music by himself and others,
light music, and arrangements of popular music on these occasions. He also made a number of records of orchestral versions of pop tunes.
Goodwin won three
Ivor Novello Awards, including one for lifetime achievement in
1994. He was also given freedom of the
City of London.
Goodwin was a sufferer of
asthma. He died suddenly in
2003 at his home in
Reading having recently completed conducting his last series of Christmas concerts with the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra.
Ron Goodwin is particularly famous for his film music, and during his career Goodwin worked on over 60 film scores. His first film work was for documentary films, and his first feature was
Whirlpool in
1958, followed by work in television and on the film
The Day of the Triffids in 1962.
His work on a number of famous war films, is particularly well remembered, with the title marches in wide use with military bands, brass bands and orchestras. These include
Where Eagles Dare (
1968),
Battle of Britain (
1969), for which he replaced
William Walton,
633 Squadron and
Operation Crossbow He also wrote the famous scores for
Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (
1965),
Alfred Hitchcock's 1972 film
Frenzy (for which he replaced
Henry Mancini), four
Miss Marple films, and two movies featuring
Morecambe and
Wise, as well as several
Norman Wisdom films, including
The Early Bird.
He is also remembered for some of his
light music compositions, such as
The Headless Horseman and the theme for 1966 film
The Trap that has been used for many years by the BBC as the theme to the
London Marathon coverage.
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Detailed biography at The Robert Farnon Society
