Roy Webb

Roy Webb (October 3 1888 – December 10 1982) was a film music composer.

Webb has hundreds of composing credits to his name, mainly with RKO Pictures, and while most of the movies he scored were fairly light in content, he is today best known for his dark horror and film noir scores. He is particularly identified with the films of Val Lewton

Born in New York City, he orchestrated and conducted for the Broadway stage, before moving to Hollywood in the late 1920s to work as music director for Radio Pictures, later RKO Pictures, where he remained until he retired in 1955. He worked as composer or arranger on over 200 films, and received Academy Award nominations for "Quality Street" (1937), "My Favorite Wife" (1940), "I Married a Witch" (1942), "Joan of Paris" (1942), "The Fallen Sparrow" (1943), "The Fighting Seabees" (1944), and "The Enchanted Cottage" (1945). His piano concerto from "The Enchanted Cottage" was performed in concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 1945. In 1961, a house fire destroyed all Webb's film scores and unpublished concert music, after which Webb ceased composing.

Webb died in 1982 from a heart attack at the age of 94.

An alumnus of Columbia University, Webb wrote the fight song "Roar, Lion, Roar" for his alma mater in 1925. Several cues composed by Webb were used in the newsreel montage of Kane's life in "Citizen Kane". He also composed several cues (uncredited) for "This is Cinerama", the first Cinerama production in 1952.

Film scores

Of the many films Webb worked on, the best known are:

* "The Last Days of Pompeii" (1935)
* "The Magnificent Ambersons" (1942) (revised ending, uncredited)
* "Stranger on the Third Floor" (1940)
* "Cat People" (1942)
* "Journey into Fear" (1943)
* "I Walked with a Zombie" (1943)
* "The Leopard Man" (1943)
* "The Curse of the Cat People" (1944)
* "Murder, My Sweet" (1944)
* "The Enchanted Cottage" (1945)
* "The Body Snatcher" (1945)
* "The Spiral Staircase" (1945)
* "Notorious" (1946)
* "Out of the Past" (1947)
* "Mighty Joe Young" (1949)
* "Flying Leathernecks" (1951)

References

*Roy Webb: music for the films of Val Lewton "(A.K.A. Cat people: classic music for the Val Lewton films) / Marco Polo 8.225125" - liner notes by Scott MacQueen, with Robert Wise and John Morgan.

External links

* [http://www.naxos.com/composerinfo/1196.htm Biography at Naxos site]
* [http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0002202/ Roy Webb filmography at the IMDB]
* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=6148219 Roy Webb's Gravesite]