John Addison
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| John Addison | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | John Mervyn Addison |
| Born | March 16, 1920 Chobham, Surrey, England |
| Died | December 7, 1998 (aged 78) Bennington, Vermont |
| Occupation(s) | composer |
John Mervyn Addison (16 March 1920 - 7 December 1998) was a British composer.
Addison is best known for his film scores. He won an Academy Award for the music to the 1963 film, Tom Jones, BAFTA Award for A Bridge Too Far (1977) and Grammy Award in the Best Original Score from a Motion Picture or Television Show category for Tom Jones. He also composed the music for A Taste of Honey (1961), Torn Curtain (1966), Smashing Time (1967), Sleuth (1972), Swashbuckler (1976) and the television series Centennial (1978) among others. He had a personal connection to Reach for the Sky (1956) which he scored, since Douglas Bader (the subject of the movie) was his brother-in-law. He also composed the theme music for Murder, She Wrote, for which he won an Emmy. Addison will also be remembered as the composer Alfred Hitchcock turned to when the director ended his long relationship with Bernard Herrmann over the score to his 1966 film Torn Curtain.
Although he wrote numerous classical compositions, Addison explained that "If you find you're good at something, as I was as a film composer, it's stupid to do anything else."
Addison was trained at Wellington College, Berkshire and at the age of sixteen entered the Royal College of Music. He studied composition with Gordon Jacob, oboe with Léon Goossens, and clarinet with Frederick Thurston. This education ended in 1939 with service in World War II. Addison served with the British XXX Corps in the 23rd Hussars. He was a tank officer in the Battle of Normandy and wounded at Caen. At the end of the war, he returned to London to teach composition at the Royal College of Music.
Marlene Dietrich recorded If He Swing By The String and Such Trying Times from the music in Tom Jones.
Addison’s collection of correspondence, scores, and studio recordings were donated to the Film Music Archives at Brigham Young University in 1994.
He was survived by his wife Pamela; two sons Jonathan and Daniel; daughter Lucinda; step-son Rex Birchenough, and step-daughter Sandra Stapleton.
[edit] References
- Obituary, The Guardian, December 15, 1998 [1]
