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Daily Mail
28-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
BREAKING NEWS Legendary Mission: Impossible composer dies aged 93
The legendary composer, who wrote the Mission: Impossible score, has passed away at the age of 93. Lalo Schifrin died inside his Los Angeles home on Thursday from complications with pneumonia, his son, Ryan, confirmed. He was surrounded by his loved ones. Schifrin was a jazz pianist and classical conductor and had a remarkable career in music that included working with Dizzy Gillespie and recording with Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. His biggest contribution was the instantly recognizable score to television's Mission: Impossible, which fueled the just-wrapped, decades-spanning feature film franchise led by Tom Cruise. 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 told the AP 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. Hans Zimmer took over scoring for the second film, and Michael Giacchino scored the next two. Giacchino told NPR he was hesitant to take it on, because Schifrin's music was one of his favorite themes of all time. 'I remember calling Lalo and asking if we could meet for lunch,' Giacchino told NPR. 'And I was very nervous - I felt like someone asking a father if I could marry their daughter or something. And he said, 'Just have fun with it.' And I did.' 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. Schifrin has composed more than 100 arrangements for film and TV. 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 told The Associated Press 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 was 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. Writing the arrangements for Dirty Harry, Schifrin decided that the main character wasn't in fact Clint Eastwood's hero, Harry Callahan, but the villain, Scorpio. 'You would think the composer would pay more attention to the hero. But in this case, no, I did it to Scorpio, the bad guy, the evil guy,' he told the AP. 'I wrote a theme for Scorpio.' It was 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.' Among 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. He also combined tango, folk and classical genres when he recorded Letters from Argentina, nominated for a Latin Grammy for best tango album in 2006. Schifrin was also commissioned to write the overture for the 1987 Pan American Games, and composed and conducted the event's 1995 final performance in Argentina. And for perhaps one of the only operas performed in the ancient Indigenous language of Nahuatl, in 1988 Schifrin wrote and conducted the choral symphony 'Songs of the Aztecs.' 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. 'I found it to be a very sweet musical language, one in which the sounds of the words dictated interesting melodies,' Schifrin told The Associated Press at the time. 'But the real answer is that there's something magic about it. ... There's something magic in the art of music anyway.' He's survived by his sons, Ryan and William, daughter, Frances, and wife, Donna.
Yahoo
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Mission Impossible theme composer, Lalo Schifrin, dies at 93
The Grammy Award-winning composer of the Mission: Impossible theme, Lalo Schifrin, has died aged 93, his family announced. The Argentine musician's son, Ryan Schifrin, confirmed his father died of complications from pneumonia on Thursday, in a statement shared with the BBC's US partner CBS. Schifrin was known for his unique percussive and jazzy style during a career that spanned more than six decades, with over 100 film and TV soundtracks to his name. He was nominated for six Oscars and won four Grammys, three of which were for his most celebrated theme for the Mission: Impossible TV series in 1966, which he later updated for the Tom Cruise blockbuster film franchise. Schifrin's family said he "passed peacefully" surrounded by loved ones and thanked the public for their moving messages of support. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid tribute to the musician's "genius" compositions which "built tension, ignited adrenaline and gave stories their pulse". "We'll forever remember the composer who turned every beat into a thrill, and every silence into suspense," it said in a post on X. The prolific artist - a composer, pianist and conductor - was a consistent nominee at the Oscars with scores for films such as The Sting II, Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror and Dirty Harry. In 2018, Schifrin received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar presented by Dirty Harry lead Clint Eastwood, who hailed his "unique musical style, his compositional integrity, and his influential contributions to the art of film scoring". When accepting the honour, the Argentine musician said composing for film had given him "a lifetime of joy and creativity" and the award was "a culmination of a dream". "It is a Mission: Accomplished," he said at the time. Born into a musical family in Buenos Aires, Schifrin studied classical piano as a child before moving to Paris in his early 20s to play jazz - later sharing the stage with famous artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Count Basie. After a move to America, he began writing for Hollywood with an eccentric blend of musical genres including jazz, classical, contemporary and pop. His most unforgettable melody for Mission: Impossible was written in an unusual 5/4 time signature and, in his words, was intended to inject "a little humour, lightness" to form a theme "that didn't take itself too seriously". The result became a global earworm to introduce one of the most successful film franchises, with the latest iteration Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning crossing $540m (£393m) worldwide.
Daily Mirror
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Daily Mirror
Mission: Impossible legend behind iconic theme dies
The Oscar winning composer behind the catchy Mission Impossible theme tune has died, it has been announced. Grammy Award-winning composer Lalo Schifrin's death at 93 was confirmed by his son Ryan Schifrin, who confirmed his father died of complications from pneumonia on Thursday. As well as the Mission Impossible theme tune, Schifrin had written over 100 film and television soundtracks, in a decade that spanned over six decades.
The Sun
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Sun
Lalo Schifrin dead aged 93: Oscar-winning composer who wrote iconic Mission: Impossible theme song dies from pneumonia
LALO Schifrin, the composer who wrote the theme for Mission: Impossible has died aged 93. Schifrin's son Ryan confirmed that the legend died due to complications from pneumonia. He died peacefully in his home in Los Angeles, surrounded by family. 1 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. He also wrote the grand finale musical performance for the World Cup championship in Italy in 1990, in which the Three Tenors Plcido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and Jos Carreras sang together for the first time. The work became one of the biggest sellers in the history of classical music. .
BBC News
27-06-2025
- Entertainment
- BBC News
Lalo Schifrin: Mission Impossible theme composer dies aged 93
The Grammy Award-winning composer of the Mission: Impossible theme, Lalo Schifrin, has died aged 93, his family Argentine musician's son, Ryan Schifrin, confirmed his father died of complications from pneumonia on Thursday, in a statement shared with the BBC's US partner was known for his unique percussive and jazzy style during a career that spanned more than six decades, with over 100 film and TV soundtracks to his was nominated for six Oscars and won four Grammys, three of which were for his most celebrated theme for the Mission: Impossible TV series in 1966, which he later updated for the Tom Cruise blockbuster film franchise. Schifrin's family said he "passed peacefully" surrounded by loved ones and thanked the public for their moving messages of Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences paid tribute to the musician's "genius" compositions which "built tension, ignited adrenaline and gave stories their pulse"."We'll forever remember the composer who turned every beat into a thrill, and every silence into suspense," it said in a post on prolific artist - a composer, pianist and conductor - was a consistent nominee at the Oscars with scores for films such as The Sting II, Cool Hand Luke, The Amityville Horror and Dirty Harry. In 2018, Schifrin received an honorary lifetime achievement Oscar presented by Dirty Harry lead Clint Eastwood, who hailed his "unique musical style, his compositional integrity, and his influential contributions to the art of film scoring".When accepting the honour, the Argentine musician said composing for film had given him "a lifetime of joy and creativity" and the award was "a culmination of a dream"."It is a Mission: Accomplished," he said at the into a musical family in Buenos Aires, Schifrin studied classical piano as a child before moving to Paris in his early 20s to play jazz - later sharing the stage with famous artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Ella Fitzgerald and Count a move to America, he began writing for Hollywood with an eccentric blend of musical genres including jazz, classical, contemporary and most unforgettable melody for Mission: Impossible was written in an unusual 5/4 time signature and, in his words, was intended to inject "a little humour, lightness" to form a theme "that didn't take itself too seriously".The result became a global earworm to introduce one of the most successful film franchises, with the latest iteration Mission: Impossible - The Final Reckoning crossing $540m (£393m) worldwide.
