John Addison

John Mervyn Addison (16 March 19207 December 1998) was a British composer best known for his film scores.

Early life

Addison was born in Chobham, Surrey to a father who was a colonel in the Royal Field Artillery, and this influenced the decision to send him to school at Wellington College, Berkshire. His grandfather was Lieut-Colonel George Addison, who played for the Royal Engineers in the 1872 and 1874 FA Cup Finals.

At the age of sixteen he entered the Royal College of Music,''The Guardian'' obituary, 15 December 1998 where he studied composition with Gordon Jacob, oboe with Léon Goossens, and clarinet with Frederick Thurston. This education ended in 1939 with service in World War II. Addison served with the British XXX Corps in the 23rd Hussars. He was a tank officer in the Battle of Normandy and wounded at Caen. Addison would later write the score for the film '' A Bridge Too Far'' about the operation. At the end of the war, he returned to London to teach composition at the Royal College of Music.

Career

Addison is best known for his film scores. He won an Academy Award for Best Original Score and a Grammy Award in the Best Original Score from a Motion Picture or Television Show category for the music to the 1963 film, ''Tom Jones''. He also won a BAFTA Award for '' A Bridge Too Far'' (1977). His other film scores included ''A Taste of Honey'' (1961), ''Smashing Time'' (1967), ''The Honey Pot'' (1967), ''Sleuth'' (1972), ''Swashbuckler'' (1976) and the television series ''Centennial'' (1978).

He composed the theme music for the television series Murder, She Wrote, and won an Emmy for the 2-hour pilot episode in the Outstanding Achievement in Music Composition for a Series (dramatic underscore) category. Addison will also be remembered as the composer Alfred Hitchcock turned to when the director ended his long relationship with Bernard Herrmann over the score to his 1966 film '' Torn Curtain'', although Addison was not hired for any of his other films.

He had a personal connection to ''Reach for the Sky'' (1956) which he scored, since Douglas Bader (the subject of the movie) was his brother-in-law, having married Addison's elder sister Thelma.

For the theatre, Addison wrote the music for John Osborne's plays '' The Entertainer'' (1957) and ''Luther'' (1961). He collaborated with John Cranko on a revue, "Cranks" in 1956.

Although he wrote numerous classical compositions, Addison explained that "If you find you're good at something, as I was as a film composer, it's stupid to do anything else." His classical works included the Concerto for trumpet, strings and percussion (1949), described by ''The Times'' as "buoyant" and "Gershwinesque"; a trio for oboe, clarinet and bassoon; ''Carte Blanche'', a ballet for Sadler's Wells first performed at the 1953 Edinburgh Festival from which an orchestral suite of "sophisticated high spirits" was performed at the Proms; a septet for wind and harp, a piano concerto, a concertante for oboe, clarinet, horn and orchestra; and a partita for strings, which was warmly praised.

Marlene Dietrich recorded ''If He Swing By the String'' and ''Such Trying Times'' from the music in ''Tom Jones''.

Addison's collection of correspondence, scores, and studio recordings were donated to the Film Music Archives at Brigham Young University in 1994. He was survived by his wife Pamela; two sons Jonathan and Daniel; daughter Lucinda; stepson Rex Birchenough, and stepdaughter Sandra Stapleton. His daughter Jane pre-deceased him.

Film scores

*1950 ''Seven Days to Noon''
*1951 ''High Treason''
* 1951 ''Pool of London''
* 1952 ''The Hour of 13''
* 1953 ''The Man Between''
*1953 ''Terror on a Train''
*1953 '' The Red Beret''
*1954 ''The Maggie''
*1954 '' The Black Knight''
*1954 '' Make Me an Offer''
* 1955 ''The Cockleshell Heroes''
* 1956 ''Private's Progress''
* 1956 ''Reach for the Sky''
*1956 ''Three Men in a Boat''
*1957 '' The Shiralee''
*1957 ''Lucky Jim''
*1957 '' Barnacle Bill''
*1958 ''I Was Monty's Double''
* 1960 '' School for Scoundrels''
* 1960 '' The Entertainer''
*1960 ''A French Mistress''
* 1960 '' His and Hers''
* 1961 ''A Taste of Honey''
*1962 ''Go to Blazes''
*1962 ''The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner''
* 1963 '' Girl in the Headlines''
* 1963 ''Tom Jones''
*1964 ''Girl with Green Eyes''
*1964 ''Guns at Batasi''
* 1964 '' The Peaches''
* 1965 ''The Amorous Adventures of Moll Flanders''
*1965 ''The Loved One''
*1965 ''The Uncle''
*1966 ''I Was Happy Here''
*1966 ''A Fine Madness''
* 1966 '' Torn Curtain''
* 1967 ''The Honey Pot''
* 1967 ''Smashing Time''
* 1968 ''The Charge of the Light Brigade''
*1970 ''Start the Revolution Without Me''
*1970 ''Country Dance''
*1971 '' Mr. Forbush and the Penguins''
*1972 ''Sleuth''
*1973 ''Luther''
*1974 '' Dead Cert''
*1975 ''Ride a Wild Pony''
*1976 ''Swashbuckler''
*1976 ''The Seven-Per-Cent Solution''
*1977 '' A Bridge Too Far''
*1977 ''Joseph Andrews''
*1980 ''The Pilot''
*1982 ''Highpoint''
*1983 '' Strange Invaders''
*1985 '' Grace Quigley''
*1985 '' Code Name: Emerald''

Music composed for TV

* 1990 ''The Phantom of the Opera'' (miniseries)
* 1988 ''A Shadow on the Sun''
* 1987 '' Strange Voices''
* 1986-1987 '' Walt Disney's Wonderful World of Color'' (2 episodes)
* 1986 ''Amazing Stories'' (2 episodes)
* 1986 ''Something in Common''
* 1986 ''Dead Man's Folly''
* 1985 '' Thirteen at Dinner''
* 1984 ''Ellis Island''
* 1984 ''Murder, She Wrote'' (1 episode)
* 1982 '' I Was a Mail Order Bride''
* 1982 '' The Devlin Connection''
* 1982 '' Charles & Diana: A Royal Love Story''
* 1982 ''Eleanor, First Lady of the World''
* 1981 '' Mistress of Paradise''
* 1981 ''Nero Wolfe'' (14 episodes)
* 1979 ''The French Atlantic Affair''
* 1979 '' Love's Savage Fury''
* 1979 '' The Power Within''
* 1979 ''Like Normal People''
* 1978 ''Centennial'' (12 episodes)
* 1978 ''Pearl''
* 1978 '' The Eddie Capra Mysteries'' (1 episode)
* 1978 '' The Bastard''
* 1978 ''Black Beauty''Se
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* 1975 '' Grady'' (2 episodes)
* 1975 '' A Journey to London''
* 1974 ''Bellamira''
* 1974 ''Play for Today'' (1 episode)
* 1970 '' ITV Sunday Night Theatre'' (1 episode) (Hamlet)
* 1964 ''Detective'' (1 episode)

Notes

References

Obituary, ''The Guardian'', 15 December 1998

External links

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John Addison papers
MSS 2165, L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University

John Addison biography and credits at BFI Screenonline

{{DEFAULTSORT:Addison, John
1920 births
1998 deaths
Military personnel from Surrey
Best Original Music BAFTA Award winners
Best Original Music Score Academy Award winners
Primetime Emmy Award winners
Grammy Award winners
English film score composers
English male film score composers
People from Chobham, Surrey
People educated at Wellington College, Berkshire
British Army personnel of World War II
23rd Hussars officers
Alumni of the Royal College of Music
20th-century classical musicians
20th-century English composers
20th-century British male musicians
Varèse Sarabande Records artists