Bill Conti

Infobox musical artist
Name = Bill Conti

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Born = Birth date and age|1942|04|13
Providence, Rhode Island, USA
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Genre = Film score
Occupation = Composer, Conductor
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Years_active = 1969–present
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Bill Conti (born April 13, 1942 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an Italian American film music composer who is frequently the conductor at the Academy Awards ceremony.

Early life and career

Bill Conti is a graduate of Louisiana State University. Bill also studied at the Juilliard School of Music. He is a past winner of the Silver Knight Award presented by the Miami Herald.

"Rocky" series

His big break into celebrity came in 1976, when he was hired to compose the music for a small United Artists film called "Rocky". The film became a phenomenon, and Conti's training montage tune, "Gonna Fly Now" topped the Billboard singles chart in 1977. He also composed music for the sequels "Rocky II" (1979), "Rocky III" (1982), "Rocky V" (1990) and "Rocky Balboa" (2006).

Other film and television credits

Conti also worked for some other films and, eventually, for television series. In 1981, he wrote the music for the James Bond film, "For Your Eyes Only", when John Barry was unwilling to return to the United Kingdom for tax reasons, and provided the score for playwright Jason Miller's film version of his Pulitzer Prize winning play That Championship Season the following year.

In 1983, he composed the score for HBO's first film, "The Terry Fox Story". Conti composed music for the film "Bad Boys". Then in 1984, he received an Academy Award for composing the score to 1983's "The Right Stuff" followed by composing music for the TV series "North and South" in 1985. He also composed the score for "The Karate Kid" as well as the "Masters of the Universe" live action movie. In 1999 he composed the score for "The Thomas Crown Affair" remake, starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.

He also composed the themes to television's "Dynasty", "The Colbys", "Falcon Crest", "Cagney & Lacey", and "The Lifestyles of The Rich And Famous". Conti also composed the theme song to the original version of "American Gladiators", worked with CBS on the movie jingle, composed one of the early themes to "Inside Edition", and wrote the theme to "Primetime Live" for ABC News. In addition he composed the score to the studio altered American version of Luc Besson's "The Big Blue".

Awards and nominations

Bill Conti has received many award nominations for his work. He received a Best Song nomination for "Gonna Fly Now." He won an Oscar for the largely electronic score for "The Right Stuff."

External links

* [http://home.versanet.de/~weinholz/bconti.html The unofficial Bill Conti Homepage]
* [http://billconti.czechian.net/indexeng.php Bill Conti's Fan Web]
* [http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/articles/1999/28_Jul---Wearing_the_Crown_Again_Bill_Conti_Interview_Part_1.asp Interview]
*Imdb name|0006015

###@@@KEY@@@###succession box
title=James Bond film score composer
years=1981
before=John Barry
1979
after=John Barry
1983-1987