Fred Steiner Memorialized by Stephanie Wolf
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Fred Steiner Memorialized by Stephanie Wolf Obituary by JON BURLINGAME Posted in Variety on Sun., June 26, 2011 Composer Fred Steiner, who wrote the themes for "Perry Mason" and "Rocky and Bullwinkle" and who later became a respected film-music historian and musicologist, died of natural causes Thursday at his home in Ajijic, Mexico. He was 88. Steiner was Oscar nominated for his contributions to Quincy Jones' 1985 score for "The Color Purple.” He also scored, on his own, a handful of features including "Man From Del Rio," "Time Limit," "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre" and "The Sea Gypsies." But it was in television where Steiner made an enduring mark, with memorable scores for seven early- 1960s episodes of "The Twilight Zone" and a dozen scores for the original "Star Trek" including such now- classic episodes as "Charlie X," "The Corbomite Maneuver" and "Balance of Terror." His TV work -- which spanned the 1950s through the 1990s -- also included dozens of episodes of "Gunsmoke," "Have Gun -- Will Travel," "Rawhide," "Daniel Boone," "The Wild Wild West," "The Virginian," "The Guns of Will Sonnett," "Hogan's Heroes," "Mannix," "Hawaii Five-O," "Dynasty," "Amazing Stories" and "Star Trek: The Next Generation.” He also penned the themes for TV's "Navy Log" and "Boots and Saddles." Steiner's most famous piece is probably the 1957 theme for the long-running lawyer series "Perry Mason," although his fun music for the 1961 cartoon series "Rocky and His Friends" (later, in primetime, "The Bullwinkle Show") is an equal favorite of baby boomers; Steiner's music included the Broadway- style "Bullwinkle Show" theme and a sendup of silent-movie-music clichés for "Dudley Do-Right of the Mounties." His facility with animation also resulted in the theme for "Beany and Cecil" plus several scores for "Tiny Toon Adventures" in the early 1990s. His TV-movie scores included "River of Gold," "Family Flight," "Night Terror," "Heat Wave" and "Blood Feud." Steiner was well-known in the industry for assisting composer colleagues, often at the last minute and without screen credit. He adapted or wrote sequences for Alfred Newman on "The Greatest Story Ever Told," for Jerry Goldsmith on "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and for Alex North on "Prizzi's Honor" and the TV remake of "Death of a Salesman." Steiner's 1974 essay on Bernard Herrmann's "Psycho" was the earliest known musicological analysis of a film score, and he earned a Ph.D. in 1981 after writing a dissertation on the life and music of Alfred Newman -- believed to be the first about a film composer to result in a doctorate in musicology in America. Steiner was one of the founders of the Society for the Preservation of Film Music, now known as the Film Music Society, and he served on its board for many years. He also conducted several albums of classic film music by Max Steiner (no relation), Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann and the "Star Trek" composers. He was born in New York, the son of film composer George Steiner; began music studies at the age of 6; and graduated from the Oberlin Conservatory of Music at the age of 20. Within months of his graduation he was composing and arranging for radio broadcasts including the popular drama "This Is Your FBI." Fred Steiner Memorialized by Stephanie Wolf He moved to Hollywood in 1947 and spent much of the 1950s writing for CBS' live radio and TV broadcasts, including the celebrated "Playhouse 90.” He lived in Mexico City from 1958-60, scoring documentaries and recording Latin-American music. Survivors include his wife of 64 years, Shirley; two daughters, singer-songwriter Wendy Waldman and Jillian Sandrock; a sister; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. Fred Steiner with daughter Wendy Waldman after conduction in London Please continue on to the next page to read the L.A. Times obituary printed on June 25, 2011 Fred Steiner Memorialized by Stephanie Wolf Obituary by RANDY LEWIS Posted in the Los Angeles Times on Sat., June 25, 2011 Television and film music composer Fred Steiner, creator of the bold and gritty theme for the "Perry Mason" TV series and one of the composers of the Oscar-nominated score for "The Color Purple," has died. He was 88. Steiner died of natural causes Thursday at his home in the town of Ajijic in the Mexican state of Jalisco, according to his daughter Wendy Waldman, a singer-songwriter. One of the busiest composers working in Hollywood in the 1950s and '60s, Steiner also crafted music for "Gunsmoke," "The Twilight Zone," "Star Trek," "Have Gun, Will Travel," "Rawhide," "Hogan's Heroes" and other TV series. Steiner said he wanted to create music for Mason, writer Erle Stanley Gardner's legal- eagle lawyer that projected two key facets of his personality: suave sophistication and the underlying toughness that allowed him to go head-to-head with the criminals with whom he often came into contact. The piece he came up with titled "Park Avenue Beat," pulsed with the power of the big city and the swagger of a beefy hero played to perfection by actor Raymond Burr. "In those days, jazz — or in those days, rhythm and blues was the big thing — represented the seamier side of life," Steiner told National Public Radio interviewer Nina Totenberg in 2002. "Don't ask me why — that's a sociological question." Frederick Steiner was born Feb. 24, 1923, in New York City, the son of violinist, composer, and arranger George Steiner. He began playing the piano at 6 and took up the cello at 13. He received a scholarship to the Oberlin Conservatory of Music in Ohio, where he studied with composer Normand Lockwood. His early jobs included composing, arranging and conducting music for New York City-based radio shows in the 1940s, and he was appointed musical director for the ABC radio series "This Is Your FBI." After moving west in 1947, he soon found film and TV work in Hollywood. Among his early assignments for CBS-TV were "Man Against Crime," "The Danny Thomas Show" and "Gunsmoke." Steiner and the other members of Hollywood's thriving musical community got together often, Waldman recalled. "I remember them all very well, remember them playing chamber music at our house, remember Bernard Herrmann pounding on the piano, Elmer [Bernstein], Jerry Goldsmith, Earle Hagen, Henry Mancini, Leonard Rosenman, Nathan Van Cleave, it goes on and on," she said. In 1958 Steiner moved the family to Mexico City for 2 1/2 years after landing a job as director of an independent record company and was commissioned to create a library of music for Mexican television and government-produced documentaries. "It was fantastic, really fantastic," his daughter Jillian Steiner Sandrock told the Albuquerque Journal in 1996. "It contributed to my interest in traditional culture. There was poverty, but especially in the rural areas there was the traditional culture, and that was a way those communities stayed knit together." Steiner returned to Southern California in 1960 and resumed his career in Hollywood. He also continued his studies at UCLA and at USC, where he received a degree in musicology, and where he later taught composition. Fred Steiner Memorialized by Stephanie Wolf "Fred was one of those people who always made my work better," longtime KUSC-FM host and film music aficionado Jim Svejda said Friday. "I remember one night when I introduced the Schoenberg Cello Concerto as being a work based on music 'by that Baroque non-entity Georg Matthias Monn.’ The next day, Fred called and proceeded to gently rip me, explaining who Monn was, describing in detail all the wonderful things he'd written, patiently illustrating his importance in the subsequent development of Baroque music, etc. "Keep in mind, Monn is a name that 99.9% of all music lovers have never even heard," Svejda said. "From then on, I knew I had to watch myself because Fred might be listening." The serious, classical music aspect of Steiner's life was a counterweight to the lighthearted character of one of his more widely recognized compositions, the jaunty Broadway-style theme he wrote for "The Bullwinkle Show" — a later incarnation of "The Adventures of Rocky & Bullwinkle" — and the charged- up, forthright Dudley Do-Right theme used in the series. Steiner contributed music to more than two dozen episodes of the original "Star Trek" TV series, music that resurfaced in 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and, most recently, for "Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II.” He also provided music, although unaccredited, for "Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi" in 1983. Contrary to the stereotype in Hollywood, Steiner was known for his down-to-earth personality. "In a profession often marked with personality conflicts and frayed nerves," film historian Tony Thomas wrote in 1991, "Steiner is notable for his even temper and affable nature. It is no exaggeration to claim him as one of the best-liked men in the film music community." In addition to his daughters, Steiner is survived by his wife of 64 years, Shirley; a sister, Kay Gellert; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren. .