Lalo Schifrin, composer of Mission: Impossible theme, dies aged 93

Telegraph

5 hours ago

Lalo Schifrin, the composer who wrote the iconic theme for Mission: Impossible and more than 100 other arrangements for film and television, has died at 93.
Schifrin's sons William and Ryan confirmed his death to trade outlets.
The Argentine won four Grammys and was nominated for six Oscars, including five for original score for Cool Hand Luke, The Fox, Voyage of the Damned, The Amityville Horror and The Sting II.
'Every movie has its own personality. There are no rules to write music for movies,' Schifrin said in 2018. 'The movie dictates what the music will be.'
He also wrote the grand finale musical performance for the World Cup championship in Italy in 1990, in which the Three Tenors — Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras — sang together for the first time. The work became one of the biggest sellers in the history of classical music.
Schifrin, also a jazz pianist and classical conductor, had a remarkable career in music that included working with Dizzy Gillespie and recording with Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan.
But perhaps his biggest contribution was the instantly recognisable score to television's Mission: Impossible, which fueled the decades-spanning film franchise led by Tom Cruise.
Written in the unusual 5/4 time signature, the them was married to an on-screen self-destruct clock that kicked off the TV show, which ran from 1966 to 1973.
It was described as 'only the most contagious tune ever heard by mortal ears' by New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane and even hit No 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968.
Schifrin originally wrote a different piece of music for the theme song but series creator Bruce Geller liked another arrangement Schifrin had composed for an action sequence.
'The producer called me and told me, 'You're going to have to write something exciting, almost like a logo, something that will be a signature, and it's going to start with a fuse,'' Schifrin said in 2006.
'So I did it and there was nothing on the screen. And maybe the fact that I was so free and I had no images to catch, maybe that's why this thing has become so successful — because I wrote something that came from inside me.'
When director Brian De Palma was asked to take the series to the silver screen, he wanted to bring the theme along with him, leading to a creative conflict with composer John Williams, who wanted to work with a new theme of his own. Out went Williams and in came Danny Elfman, who agreed to retain Schifrin's music.
Mission: Impossible won Grammys for best instrumental theme and best original score from a motion picture or a TV show. In 2017, the theme was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame.
Born Boris Claudio Schifrin to a Jewish family in Buenos Aires — where his father was the concertmaster of the philharmonic orchestra — Schifrin was classically trained in music, in addition to studying law.
After studying at the Paris Conservatory — where he learned about harmony and composition from the legendary Olivier Messiaen — Schifrin returned to Argentina and formed a concert band. Gillespie heard Schifrin perform and asked him to become his pianist, arranger and composer. In 1958, Schifrin moved to the United States, playing in Gillespie's quintet in 1960-62 and composing the acclaimed 'Gillespiana.'
The long list of luminaries he performed and recorded with includes Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Dee Dee Bridgewater and George Benson. He also worked with such classical stars as Zubin Mehta, Mstislav Rostropovich, Daniel Barenboim and others.
Schifrin moved easily between genres, winning a Grammy for 1965's Jazz Suite on the Mass Texts while also earning a nod that same year for the score of TV's The Man From U.N.C.L.E. In 2018, he was given an honorary Oscar statuette and, in 2017, the Latin Recording Academy bestowed on him one of its special trustee awards.
Later film scores included Tango, Rush Hour and its two sequels, Bringing Down The House, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, After the Sunset and the horror film Abominable.
He also wrote the arrangement for Dirty Harry and it was the film's star, Clint Eastwood, who handed him his honorary Oscar.
'Receiving this honorary Oscar is the culmination of a dream,' Schifrin said at the time. 'It is mission accomplished.'
The countdown begins. The fuse lights. The music hits and suddenly, you're in it. That was the genius of Lalo Schifrin.
With six Academy Award nominations and iconic scores for MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE, THE FOX, BULLITT, AND THE STING II, Schifrin didn't just write music, he built… pic.twitter.com/uA0KfeVmaT
— The Academy (@TheAcademy) June 26, 2025
Schifrin's conducting credits include the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Mexico Philharmonic, the Houston Symphony Orchestra, the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra.
He was appointed music director of Southern California's Glendale Symphony Orchestra and served in that capacity from 1989-1995. Schifrin also wrote and adapted the music for 'Christmas in Vienna' in 1992, a concert featuring Diana Ross, Carreras and Domingo.
In 1988 Schifrin wrote and conducted the choral symphony Songs of the Aztecs, perhaps one of the only operas performed in the ancient Indigenous language of Nahuatl, The work premiered at Mexico's Teotihuacan pyramids with Domingo as part of a campaign to raise money to restore the site's Aztec temple.
In addition to his sons, Schifrin is survived by his daughter, Frances, and wife, Donna.