David Raksin Biography (1912-)

Born August 4, 1912, in Philadelphia, PA; son of Isidor (a music store operator and musical conductor) and Pauline (maiden name, Horwitz) Raksin; marriedsecond wife, Joanne Carol Kaiser, September 19, 1959; children: (first marriage) Richard David; (second marriage) Alexander, Valentina. Addresses:Contact: c/o American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers, 7920 Sunset Blvd., Suite 300, Los Angeles, CA 90046.

Nationality: American
Gender: Male
Occupation: Composer, conductor
Birth Details: August 4, 1912; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

Famous Works

CREDITS
Film Work
Music arranger, Modern Times, United Artists, 1936
Orchestrator, The Road Back, 1937
(Uncredited) Music arranged, The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle,1939
(Uncredited) Orchestrator, The Gorilla, 1939
Music director, The Men in Her Life, Columbia, 1941
Orchestrator, Something to Shout About, Columbia, 1943
Music director, Right Cross, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950
(Uncredited) Orchestrator and conductor, The Bad and the Beautiful, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1952
Music director, The Big Combo, Allied Artists, 1955
Orchestrator and conductor, Al Capone, Allied Artists, 1959
Music director, Pay or Die, Allied Artists, 1960
Conductor, A Big Hand for the Little Lady (also known as Big Deal at Dodge City), Warner Bros., 1966
Conductor, What's the Matter with Helen?, United Artists, 1971
Film Appearances
As Himself
Music for the Movies: Bernard Herrmann, 1992
Otto Preminger (documentary), 1999
Cinerama Adventure (documentary), C.A. Productions, 2001
Television Appearances
Specials
The Hollywood Soundtrack Story, AMC, 1995
Der Klang der Bilder, [Germany], 1995
(In archive footage) Music for the Movies: The Hollywood Sound, PBS, 1995
Radio Appearances
Series
Narrator of the series The Subject Is Film Music, three years.
RECORDINGS
Videos
Himself, Ben-Hur: The Making of an Epic (documentary), 1993
WRITINGS
Film Scores
(With others) Dancing Pirate, 1936
(Uncredited) Three Smart Girls, 1936
(Uncredited) Marry the Girl, Warner Bros., 1937
(Uncredited; with others) Midnight Court, Warner Bros., 1937
(Uncredited) The Mighty Treve, Universal, 1937
Let Them Live! (also known as The Stones Cry Out), Universal, 1937
(Uncredited) As Good As Married, Universal, 1937
(Uncredited) She's Dangerous (also known as Blonde Dynamite), Universal, 1937
(Uncredited; with Heinz Roemheld and Charles Maxwell) San Quentin,Warner Bros., 1937
(Uncredited) Wings over Honolulu, Universal, 1937
(Uncredited; with others) The Kid Comes Back (also known as Don't Pull Your Punches), Warner Bros., 1937
(Uncredited; with others) Marked Woman, 1937
52nd Street, 1937
Sh! the Octopus, 1937
(Uncredited; with others) Suez, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1938
(Uncredited) The Baroness and the Butler, 1938
(Uncredited; with others) Frontier Marshal, Twentieth Century-Fox,1939
(With others) The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (also known as Sherlock Holmes), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1939
(Uncredited; with others) Hollywood Cavalcade, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1939
(Uncredited; with others) Mr. Moto's Last Warning, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1939
(Uncredited) The Hound of the Baskervilles, 1939
(Uncredited) The Gorilla, 1939
(Uncredited) Susannah of the Mounties, 1939
(Uncredited; with others) Stanley and Livingstone, 1939
(Uncredited) The Blue Bird, 1940
(Uncredited) Forty Little Mothers, 1940
(With others) Dead Men Tell, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1941
(With others; and, uncredited, incidental music) The Men in Her Life, Columbia, 1941
(With others) Ride on Vaquero, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1941
Western Daze, 1941
Dipsy Gypsy, 1941
(Uncredited) Men of the Timberland, 1941
Inflation, 1942
(With Emil Newman) Dr. Renault's Secret, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942
(Uncredited; with others) Just off Broadway, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942
(Uncredited; with others) The Man Who Wouldn't Die, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942
(With others) The Magnificent Dope, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942
(With others) Manila Calling, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942

(With Newman) The Undying Monster (also known as The Hammond Mystery), Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942
(With others) Whispering Ghosts, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942
(With others) Who Is Hope Schuyler?, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1942
(With others) Thru' Different Eyes, 1942
(With others) The Postman Didn't Ring, 1942
(With others) City without Men (also known as Prison Farm),Columbia, 1943
(With Gil Grau) Something to Shout About, Columbia, 1943
(Uncredited) Time to Kill, 1943
(Uncredited) Prelude to War (also known as Why We Fight, 1), 1943
Laura, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1944
Tampico, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1944
Main Street Today, 1944
Don Juan Quilligan, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1945
(And, with Kermit Goell, the song "Slowly") Fallen Angel, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1945
Attack in the Pacific (documentary; also known as Armed ForcesInformation Film: A.F.I.F. Number 3), U.S. Navy, 1945
Smoky, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1946
Daisy Kenyon, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1947
Forever Amber, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1947
The Homestretch, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1947
The Shocking Miss Pilgrim, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1947
The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, RKO Radio Pictures, 1947
Apartment for Peggy, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1948
Force of Evil (also known as The Numbers Racket and TheStory of Tucker's People), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1948
Fury at Furnace Creek, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1948
Whirlpool, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1949
A Lady without Passport, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950
The Next Voice You Hear, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950
The Magnificent Yankee (also known as The Man with Thirty Sons), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950
The Reformer and the Redhead, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950
Right Cross, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1950
Giddyap (animated), 1950
Grounds for Marriage, 1950
Across the Wide Missouri, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951
(With others) It's a Big Country, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951
Kind Lady, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951
The Man with a Cloak, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1951
The Bad and the Beautiful, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1952
Carrie, Paramount, 1952
The Girl in White (also known as So Bright the Flame), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1952
Pat and Mike, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1952
Sloppy Jalopy (animated), 1952
Madeline (animated), 1952
Just for You, 1952
A Blueprint for Murder, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1953
The Unicorn in the Garden (animated), 1953
Apache, United Artists, 1954
Passion, RKO Radio Pictures, 1954
Suddenly, United Artists, 1954
The Big Combo, Allied Artists, 1955
Bigger Than Life, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1956
Hilda Crane, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1956
Jubal, Columbia, 1956
(With others) Seven Wonders of the World, 1956
El redentor (also known as The Life of Christ: Mysteries of theRosary Volume 2, The Redeemer, The Sorrowful Mysteries, Los misterios del rosario no. 2, and Los misterios del rosario: El redentor), 1957
(And, with Sammy Cahn, the title song) Until They Sail, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1957
Gunsight Ridge (some sources cite Gaslight Ridge), United Artists, 1957
Man on Fire, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1957
The Vintage, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1957
Separate Tables, United Artists, 1958
Twilight for the Gods, Universal, 1958
Al Capone, Allied Artists, 1959
Pay or Die, Allied Artists, 1960
Too Late Blues, Paramount, 1962
Two Weeks in Another Town, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1962
Night Tide, American International Pictures, 1963
Invitation to a Gunfighter, United Artists, 1964
(And, with Jack Brooks, the song "I Lost My Heart in a Drive-in Movie") The Patsy, Paramount, 1964
(And, with Mack David, the title song) Love Has Many Faces, Columbia, 1965
The Redeemer, Empire, 1965
(And, with Paul Francis Webster, the title song) Sylvia, Paramount, 1965
A Big Hand for the Little Lady (also known as Big Deal at DodgeCity), Warner Bros., 1966
(And, with Robert Wells, the song "The Lonely Rider") Will Penny,Paramount, 1968
What's the Matter with Helen?, United Artists, 1971
Glass Houses, Columbia, 1972
Otto Preminger (documentary), 1999
Also composed music for Mr. Magoo cartoons.
Film Music
Other
(Uncredited) Main title theme music, Wild West Days, 1937
Incidental music, Cadet Girl, 1941
Incidental music, Where Do We Go from Here?, Twentieth Century-Fox, 1945
Songs (with others), Bird, Warner Bros., 1988
Songs Featured in Films
Additional songs, The Gang's All Here (also known as The GirlsHe Left Behind), 1943
"The Little Broadcast," The Puppetoon Movie, Expanded Entertainment, 1986
Television Scores
Movies
The Over-the-Hill Gang Rides Again, ABC, 1970
The Ghost of Flight 401, NBC, 1978
The Suicide's Wife (also known as A New Life), CBS, 1979
The Day After, ABC, 1983
Lady in the Corner, NBC, 1989
Television Music
Series
(Including theme music) Ben Casey, 1961
Theme music, Breaking Point, 1963
Also composer for the series Medical Center, Two Faces West, and Wagon Train (also known as Major Adams, Trail Master).
Stage Music
If the Shoe Fits, New Century Theatre, New York City, 1946
The Wind in the Willows, 1965
Other
Wonderful Invention (musical pieces), Library of Congress (Washington, DC), 1986
Writer for the radio series The Subject Is Film Music, which was broadcast for three years. Contributor to periodicals, including QuarterlyJournal of the Library of Congress.
Raksin's manuscripts are housed in a collection in the music division ofthe Library of Congress.

Further Reference

ADAPTATIONS

Raksin's music was featured in the revue Dream, presented at the Royale Theatre, New York City, in 1997. The song "Laura" was featured in bothMidnight in the Garden of Good and Evil, released by Warner Bros. in 1997, and 20 Dates, released by Twentieth Century-Fox in 1998. The 1999film Forever Hollywood included Raksin's theme from The Bad and the Beautiful.

OTHER SOURCES

Books

International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, Volume 4: Writers and Production Artists, St. James Press, 1996

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