Musician, composer, and conductor Lalo Schifrin died yesterday (June 26) at the age of 93. You may not recognize his name but you’ve probably heard his work. Schifrin composed the theme songs to Mission: Impossible and Mannix and scored movies like Cool Hand Luke, Bullitt, Dirty Harry, Enter the Dragon, The Amityville Horror, and Rush Hour.
During his lengthy career he earned four Grammy Awards and was nominated for 15 others. He won a Latin Grammy Award as well, plus three additional nominations. He was also nominated for six Academy Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and four Emmy Awards. He earned an Academy Honorary Award in 2018.
While his themes to Mission: Impossible and Mannix are his most well-known works for television, Schifrin composed music for a variety of other TV shows, including some obscurities. He composed the theme song for Blue Light (ABC, 1966) and also provided scores for multiple episodes. Schifrin was the composer for one season wonder T.H.E. Cat (NBC, 1966-1967). He was the composer for The Big Valley during the 1968-1969 season. He composed the theme music to Medical Center (CBS, 1969-1976) and scored multiple episodes. He also composed the theme music to Planet of the Apes (CBS, 1974) and scored three episodes. That same season, he composed the theme music to NBC’s Petrocelli.
ABC’s Starsky and Hutch featured his theme music for its first season (1975-1976). He composed the theme music to Most Wanted (ABC, 1976-1977), Chicago Story (NBC, 1982), and Glitter (ABC, 1984-1985). When ABC revived Mission: Impossible for the 1988-1989 TV season, Lalo Schifrin’s was back. Likewise, it was featured in the 1996 Tom Cruise movie Mission: Impossible and its many sequels, the most recent of which was released this past May.
One final bit of trivia: Lalo Schifrin was the composer for See How They Run, which aired on NBC in October 1964 and is considered the first made-for-TV movie in the United States.
Obituaries can be found at Deadline Hollywood, Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, and Billboard.
Wonderful tribute to a great artist. Thank you!
ironically a host of obits were painfully incompetent.**..schifrin is not related to Nick of pbs news fame!! ( Jewish geography knows no bounds!) lalos first wife predeceased him …and was closely related to religious activities to my home town here..Quite an influential life!
even more trivia//// lalos sister predeceased him and was in the Manhattan area for years involved with semetic/ Jewish academia along with my own romance language specialists ——- here in teaneck. nj… a far cry from Latino Brazil indeed