Lionel Newman

Born in Connecticut, Lionel Newman secured a conducting post with Earl Carroll's Vanities in Los Angeles while still in his teens. Over the following several years he served as Mae West's accompanist. The year 1943 brought an appointment as rehearsal pianist at 20th Century-Fox, where he remained for the next four decades in capacities ranging from conductor and composer to arranger and musical supervisor. Eleven Oscar nominations preceded his sole win, awarded for the score of Hello Dolly in 1969. His final screen credit came with the 1984 release Unfaithfully Yours, itself a remake of one of the scarce Fox pictures from the 1940s on which he had not worked. He was the brother of composer Alfred Newman and the uncle of musician Randy Newman.