Lyn Murray

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Lyn Murray (13 August 1909 to 29 April 1989) was a composer, conductor, and arranger of music for radio, film and television.

Born Lionel Breeze in London, he arrived on American shores to found the Lyn Murray Singers, who became well-known throughout the United States as the featured group on CBS radio’s Your Hit Parade. Murray worked as a conductor, arranger and producer for CBS (with such artists as Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong and Burl Ives) prior to switching networks in 1947 to NBC. The Lyn Murray Singers appeared on Broadway in the musical Finian's Rainbow (1948), singing arrangements specially written by Murray for the production.

In 1950, Murray moved to Hollywood and began composing scores for feature films, including The Prowler (1951) and To Catch a Thief (1955), as well as creating episodic underscoring for television shows such as The Virginian (1962), Daniel Boone (1964), The Time Tunnel (1966) and Dragnet (1967). He won an Emmy in 1986 for his score to the National Geographic special Miraculous Machines.

Murray was married for a time to Margaret Pexton, but they divorced in 1982. He lived for many years in Pacific Palisades, California, and died of cancer at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.