John Cacavas

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Composer and conductor John Cacavas (born 13 August 1930 in Aberdeen, South Dakota) is probably best known for his television scores, notably Kojak, for which he was the chief composer. The well known Kojak theme however is not by Cacavas, rather the work of Billy Goldenberg, who scored the early episodes. His television credits also include Hawaii Five-O, The Bionic Woman, Mrs. Columbo, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. While he has extensive credits in television series and made-for-TV movies, he has comparatively few credits for film scores, most notably two entries in the Airport series: Airport 1975 and Airport '77.

More recently, he wrote the theme song for the 2005 video game Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories. The song, "March Popakov Remix", was produced with DJ Danger Mouse and is used frequently in the game.

Cacavas recently published his autobiography, entitled It's More than Do-Re-Mi: My Life in Music. He lives in Beverly Hills, California and London, England with his wife, Bonetta Becker Cacavas and is an accomplished chef. They have three grown children, Lisa, John and Jennifer, and two grandchildren, James and Eric.