Henry Mancini

Success is frequently measured by the esteem of fellow professionals, placing composer, arranger, and conductor Henry Mancini among the most accomplished figures in his field. Over a four-decade span devoted to scoring for motion pictures and television, he accumulated four Academy Awards and twenty Grammy Awards, establishing the highest total ever achieved by a pop artist. The 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany's alone earned him five Grammys and two Oscars, highlighted by the enduring standard “Moon River,” whose lyrics were supplied by Johnny Mercer and which stands among the strongest pop compositions of the past half-century. More than one thousand cover versions of the song have been documented. Additional signature pieces encompass “Dear Heart,” “Days of Wine and Roses”—which secured one Oscar and two Grammys—and “Charade,” the latter two also featuring Mercer’s words. He reached number one and captured a Grammy with Nino Rota’s “Love Theme From Romeo and Juliet.”

Further distinguished film scores include The Pink Panther, honored with three Grammys, Hatari!, which earned one Grammy, Victor/Victoria, awarded an Oscar, along with Two for the Road, Wait Until Dark, and 10. On the small screen his contributions comprise the themes for “Peter Gunn”—recipient of two Grammys and subsequently interpreted by numerous rock performers—“Mr. Lucky,” likewise awarded two Grammys, “Newhart,” “Remington Steele,” and the television miniseries The Thorn Birds.

During childhood Mancini mastered an array of instruments, while adolescence brought a deep fascination with jazz and big-band music. He began composing arrangements and mailed several to Benny Goodman, who replied with encouragement to continue in the profession. In 1942 he entered the Juilliard School of Music, yet wartime service in World War II interrupted his studies. Following the conflict, Tex Beneke, conductor of the Glenn Miller Orchestra, engaged him as pianist and arranger. By the late 1940s Mancini was supplying music for recording sessions and motion pictures, beginning with a date featuring the Mel-Tones and his wife, vocalist Ginny O’Connor, then advancing to the Abbot & Costello feature Lost in Alaska, his initial theatrical assignment.

That project opened doors to additional scores, notably 1954’s The Glenn Miller Story and 1956’s The Benny Goodman Story, both of which foregrounded his big-band heritage. He soon balanced an extensive slate of film and television projects, among them Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil and the series Peter Gunn. His writing characteristically merged jazz sensibilities with cinematic drama, producing a sound at once singular and widely emulated.

The early 1960s marked Mancini’s peak period. Breakfast at Tiffany’s generated the Oscar-winning “Moon River,” which rapidly attained standard status, while the following year’s Days of Wine and Roses earned an Academy Award for its title song. Across the ensuing thirty years he remained among the most sought-after composers for the screen and maintained a thriving parallel career as a concert conductor. Work continued until his death in 1994; shortly beforehand he was preparing the stage adaptation of Victor/Victoria.

What sustained the freshness of his output was an extraordinary versatility across stylistic boundaries and a readiness to explore unconventional timbres and instrumentation. In the 1989 memoir Did They Mention the Music?, co-author Gene Lees observed that “More than any other person, he Americanized film scoring, and in time even European film composers followed in his path,” adding that Mancini’s scores “contained almost as many fully developed song melodies as a Broadway musical.” Remaining devoted to film scoring as his primary passion, he nonetheless demonstrated the capacity to have exerted comparable influence on the Broadway stage.