Roy Webb

Roy Webb (October 3, 1888 – December 10, 1982) was an American-born composer.

Although a majority of his work was at RKO Pictures, where many of his scores were for films considered to be fairly light in content, he is better known today for the scores he composed for film noir and the horror genre, particularly those directed by Val Lewton.

Webb was born in New York City, where he orchestrated and conducted for various Broadway shows. He relocated to Hollywood in the late 1920s to work under contract for Radio Pictures, later RKO Pictures. He remained at RKO until 1955, following which time he composed scores for several films at Warner Bros.. Webb is credited as a composer (or arranger) on more than 200 films. He received an Academy Award nominations for Quality Street (1937), My Favorite Wife (1940), I Married a Witch (1942), Joan of Paris (1942), The Fallen Sparrow (1943), The Fighting Seabees (1944), and The Enchanted Cottage (1945). His piano concerto from The Enchanted Cottage was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Constantin Bakalienikoff, in concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 1945. After a house fire in 1961 destroyed most of Webb's film scores and unpublished concert music he ceased composing altogether.

Webb died in 1982 from a heart attack at the age of 94.

An alumnus of Columbia University, Webb wrote the fight song Roar, Lion, Roar for his alma mater in 1925. Several cues composed by Webb were used in the newsreel montage of Kane's life in Citizen Kane. Several cues composed by Webb replaced those by Bernard Herrmann in The Magnificent Ambersons after the film was re-edited. Webb also composed several cues (uncredited) for This is Cinerama, the first Cinerama production in 1952.

Selected filmography

• Our Betters (1933)
• Down to Their Last Yacht (1934)
• Sylvia Scarlett (1935, uncredited)
• Stranger on the Third Floor (1940)
• The Magnificent Ambersons (1942). Additional music (uncredited).
• The Big Street (1942)
• Cat People (1942)
• Journey into Fear (1943)
• I Walked with a Zombie (1943)
• The Leopard Man (1943)
• Gangway for Tomorrow (1943)
• The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
• Murder, My Sweet (1944)
• Bride by Mistake (1944)
• The Enchanted Cottage (1945)
• The Body Snatcher (1945)
• The Spiral Staircase (1945)
• Notorious (1946)
• The Locket (1946)
• Out of the Past (1947)
• They Won't Believe Me (1947)
• Mighty Joe Young (1949)
• The Window (1949)
• Where Danger Lives (1950)
• Flying Leathernecks (1951)
• Houdini (1953)
• Track of the Cat (1954)

References

• Roy Webb: music for the films of Val Lewton (A.K.A. Cat people: classic music for the Val Lewton films) / Marco Polo 8.225125 - liner notes by Scott MacQueen, with Robert Wise and John Morgan.

External links

• Biography at Naxos site
• Roy Webb filmography at the IMDB
• Roy Webb's Gravesite