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Lee Holdridge
Composer Tributes



        It is not often that top talent can be so consistently found in the genre of television scoring, but veteran composer Lee Holdridge has made a monumentally successful career of it. When producing music for television films and series, the frustrations of budgetary and time constraints are often exaggerated to levels far beyond those of major studio film projects. Holdridge, however, continues to provide quality, melodic music for all of his low budget assignments, whether with an orchestra, a combination of the orchestral and synthetic, or even with electronics alone. Holdridge has written music for films on nearly every network and cable entity, including NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, TNT, HBO, and Showtime. The massive 2001 score for The Mists of Avalon remains Holdridge's most outstanding mainstream success. His work for documentaries is also critically acclaimed, with several big-name documentary titles under his belt in the last ten years.

        The career of Lee Holdridge, however, is by no means limited to television and documentaries. The expansive list of works by the Latino-born composer extends from major film scores to popular song-writing abilities employed by the world's foremost opera and pop singers. His writing and arranging experience has led to orchestral concert and studio recordings with performers ranging from Placido Domingo and Barbra Streisand to Neil Diamond and John Denver. These talents have also extended to the animated and live-action musical genres, a few of which have been released on CD albums. For film score fans (those who recall Holdridge's Splash and Old Gringo, among other top achievements), Holdridge's music on CD has been an elusive prospect. Due to his work on projects of lesser public knowledge, the vast majority of his music has never seen a commercial CD release, leaving collectors scrambling for the few promotional albums of his diverse works.



"If you're a good composer, you'll come up with pieces that live beyond just the film. Not every film lends itself to writing something really strong that would live beyond the film, but with East of Eden or Splash, if you have a great theme, it goes on in other incarnations."

        -- Lee Holdridge, 1999




Lee Holdridge's Credits:

Lee Holdridge in 2003
Information about Holdridge's background:

Lee Holdridge was born in March, 1944 in Port-Au-Prince, Haiti. He spent his early years in Costa Rica, beginning music studies on the violin at the age of ten with Hugo Mariani, then the conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Costa Rica. At fifteen (the age at which he became determined to be a composer) he moved to Boston to finish high school and study composition with Henry Lasker. In 1962, Holdridge moved to New York at age eighteen to continue his music studies and begin his professional career as a composer. While in New York, he wrote chamber works, rock pieces, songs, theater music, and background scores for short films. Holdridge's successes in New York came to the attention of legend Neil Diamond, who brought Holdridge to Los Angeles to write arrangements for Diamondıs forthcoming albums. A string of gold and platinum hits followed, which led to Diamond and Holdridge collaborating on the film score for Jonathan Livingston Seagull in 1973.

Since that time, Holdridge has scored over 150 film and television projects. In the 1980's, Holdridge scored the biggest motion pictures of his career, including such popular favorites as Splash, The Beastmaster, El Pueblo del Sol, and Old Gringo. His television work was (and has remained) far more prolific, with early television efforts highlighted by music for Moonlighting, Beauty and the Beast, and East of Eden. After scoring the film Pastime in 1991 (winner of the Audience Award at the Sundance Film Festival), Holdridge concentrated heavily on television films and mini-series, as well as highly acclaimed documentaries. Among others, Holdridge has written music for films on NBC, CBS, ABC, PBS, Turner (TNT), HBO, and Showtime. His heavily dramatic work for Into Thin Air and Into the Arms of Strangers was offset by flamboyant children's songs opposite Rachel Portman's score in The Adventures of Pinocchio.

In addition to his film career, Holdridge has had an extensive repertoire of concert works performed and recorded, and has also worked with many major recording artists. He has written, arranged and conducted for Placido Domingo (leading to several CD album releases), Barbra Streisand, Brian May of Queen, Stevie Wonder, Neil Diamond, John Denver, Al Jarreau, Dionne Warwick, Diana Ross, Natalie Cole, and many others. Holdridge has received numerous awards and nominations during his career, including five Emmies, two of which for Beauty And The Beast. He received both Emmy and Grammy nominations for his title song for "Moonlighting," which he co-wrote with Al Jarreau, and he also received the prestigious "Circle of Friends of Music" award, given in Italy in 1972 for his "Ballet Fantasy for Strings and Harp." His theatre works include the Opera "Lazarus and his Beloved," the Broadway musical "Into the Light," and co-authorship of the Joffrey Ballet standard "Trinity."

Continuing his extensive assignments for television films and series in the 2000's, Holdridge exploded into mainstream pop culture once again with his massive orchestral score for the TNT mini-series The Mists of Avalon in 2001. Ranking at the top of many film music critics' lists of top scores for the year, The Mists of Avalon sailed on to magnificent success on CD album. With heartfelt scores for Latino-themed projects (from the dramatic Old Gringo to the PBS TV series "American Family"), Holdridge remains one of only a few major Latino representatives in the scoring industry, an industry otherwise dominated by composers of American and European origins.




  2007
  • I Have Never Forgotten You: The Life & Legacy of Simon Wiesenthal

2006

  • Ever Again
  • Korgoth of Barbaria (TV)

2005

  • Saving Milly (TV)
  • See Arnold Run (TV)

2004

  • The Brooke Ellison Story (TV)
  • 10.5 (TV)

2003

  • American Valor (TV)
  • Unlikely Heroes ****
  • Puerto Vallarta Squeeze
  • Sounder (TV)

2002

  • American Family (TV)
  • The Pilot's Wife (TV)

2001

2000

  • By Dawn's Early Light (TV)
  • Into the Arms of Strangers: Stories of the Kindertransport ***
  • Take Me Home: The John Denver Story (TV)
  • Kings of the Ring: Four Legends of Heavyweight Boxing (TV)

1999

  • A Gift of Love: The Daniel Huffman Story (TV)
  • Anya's Bell (TV)
  • Sealed with a Kiss (TV)
  • Atomic Train (TV)
  • Love Letters (TV)
  • Blue Moon (TV)
  • Mutiny (TV)
  • Replacing Dad (TV)

1998

  • The Secret of N.I.M.H. 2: Timmy to the Rescue ***
  • Nagano '98 Olympics: Stories of Honor and Glory (TV)
  • Her Own Rules (TV)
  • Two for Texas (TV)

1997

1996

  • Holiday Affair (TV)
  • She Cried No (TV)
  • London Suite (TV)
  • Remembrance (TV)
  • The Adventures of Pinocchio *** (songs)
  • An Unfinished Affair (TV)
  • Harvest of Fire
  • Soul of the Game (TV)
  • The Little Riders (TV)
  • Star Command (TV)

1995

1994

  • Freefall
  • The Whipping Boy (TV)
  • Lillehammer '94: 16 Days of Glory (TV)
  • Spring Awakening (TV)
  • Family Album (TV)
  • A Perfect Stranger (TV)
  • Running Delilah (TV)
  • Roommates (TV)
  • The Yearling (TV)
  • Incident in a Small Town (TV)

1993

1992

  • Deadly Matrimony (TV)
  • Obsessed (TV)
  • Day-O (TV)
  • In the Arms of a Killer (TV)

1991

1990

  • Over My Dead Body (TV)
  • The Dreamer of Oz (TV)
  • Fine Things (TV)
  • Joshua's Heart (TV)
  • Daughter of the Streets (TV)

1989

  • Christine Cromwell (TV)
  • Do You Know the Muffin Man? (TV)
  • Old Gringo *****

1988

  • The Tenth Man (TV)
  • Fatal Judgement (TV)
  • Higher Ground (TV)
  • A Friendship in Vienna (TV)
  • Big Business
  • 14 Going on 30 (TV)
  • A Tiger's Tale

1987

  • Desperate (TV)
  • Beauty and the Beast (TV) ****
  • Born in East L.A.
  • Walk Like a Man
  • Young Harry Houdini (TV)
  • I'll Take Manhattan (TV)

1986

  • Adam's Apple (TV)
  • Mafia Princess (TV)
  • The Men's Club
  • Miracle of the Heart: A Boys Town Story (TV)
  • Pleasures (TV)

1985

  • 16 Days of Glory
  • The Eagle and the Bear (TV)
  • Transylvania 6-5000
  • The Other Lover (TV)
  • Letting Go (TV)
  • Sylvester
  • Moonlighting (TV)

1984

  • Micki + Maude
  • Splash ****
  • He's Fired, She's Hired (TV)

1983

  • El Pueblo del Sol
  • First Affair (TV)
  • A Caribbean Mystery (TV)
  • Mr. Mom
  • I Want to Live (TV)
  • Wizards and Warriors (TV)
  • Thursday's Child (TV)
  • Running Out (TV)

1982

  • The Beastmaster ****
  • This is Kate Bennett... (TV)
  • Thou Shalt Not Kill (TV)

1981

  • Skyward Christmas (TV)
  • The Day the Loving Stopped (TV)
  • American Pop
  • East of Eden (TV)

1980

  • Skyward (TV)

1979

  • French Postcards
  • Tilt

1978

  • Oliver's Story
  • The Other Side of the Mountain Part II
  • Moment by Moment
  • Like Mom, Like Me (TV)
  • To Kill a Cop (TV)
  • Having Babies III (TV)
  • And the Soul Shall Dance (TV)

1977

  • The Hemingway Play (TV)
  • The Pack
  • Pine Canyon is Burning (TV)
  • Eight Is Enough (TV) (theme)
  • Code R (TV)

1976

  • Goin' Home
  • Mustang Country
  • Riding with Death
  • Forever Young, Forever Free
  • Gemini Man (TV)

1975

  • Winterhawk (title song)
  • The Family Holvak (TV)

1974

  • The Rangers (TV)
  • Skyway to Death (TV)

1973

  • Jeremy
  • Jonathan Livingston Seagull

1972

  • Another Part of the Forest (TV)
  • Hec Ramsey (TV)

1971

  • The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker




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Page created 8/27/03, updated 9/4/03. Version 3.3 (Filmtracks Publishing). Copyright © 2003, Christian Clemmensen. All rights reserved. The reviews, pictures, and notes contained in the filmtracks.com composer tributes may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without the prior written authority of Filmtracks Publications.