- John Addison
Infobox musical artist
Name = John Addison
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Background = non_performing_personnel
Birth_name = John Mervyn Addison
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Born =March 16 ,1920
Chobham, Surrey ,England
Died =December 7 ,1998 (aged 78)
Bennington, Vermont
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Occupation =composer
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Notable_instruments =John Mervyn Addison (
16 March 1920 -7 December 1998 ) was a Britishcomposer .Addison is best known for his film scores. He won an Academy Award for the music to the 1963 film, "Tom Jones",
BAFTA Award for "A Bridge Too Far" (1977) andGrammy Award in the Best Original Score from a Motion Picture or Television Show category for "Tom Jones". He also composed the music for "A Taste of Honey" (1961), "Torn Curtain " (1966), "Smashing Time " (1967), "Sleuth" (1972), "Swashbuckler" (1976) and the television series "Centennial" (1978) among others. He had a personal connection to "Reach for the Sky " (1956) which he scored, sinceDouglas Bader (the subject of the movie) was his brother-in-law. He also composed the theme music for "Murder, She Wrote ", for which he won an Emmy. Addison will also be remembered as the composerAlfred Hitchcock turned to when the director ended his long relationship withBernard Herrmann over the score to his 1966 film "Torn Curtain ".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."
Addison was trained at
Wellington College, Berkshire and at the age of sixteen entered theRoyal College of Music . He studied composition withGordon Jacob , oboe withLéon Goossens , and clarinet withFrederick Thurston . This education ended in 1939 with service inWorld War II . Addison served with the British XXX Corps in the23rd Hussars . He was a tank officer in theBattle of Normandy and wounded atCaen . At the end of the war, he returned to London to teach composition at the Royal College of Music.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; step-son Rex Birchenough, and step-daughter Sandra Stapleton.
References
*Obituary, The Guardian, December 15, 1998 [http://www.hitchcockwiki.com/hitchcock/wiki/The_Guardian_(15/Dec/1998)_-_Obituary:_John_Addison]
External links
*imdb|id=0011709|name=John Addison
* [http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/508795/index.html John Addison biography and credits at BFI Screenonline]
*amg|id=11:dcfqxq95ldae|label=John Addison
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