Jump to content

Dimitri Tiomkin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 212.146.47.250 (talk) at 22:30, 13 July 2007. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (Russian: Дмитрий Зиновьевич Тёмкин, Dmitrij Zinov'evič Tëmkin, sometimes translated as Dmitri Tiomkin) (May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a three-time Academy Award winning film score composer and conductor. Along with Max Steiner, Miklós Rózsa and Franz Waxman, Tiomkin was one of the most productive and decorated film music writers of Hollywood.

Tiomkin was born in Kremenchug, Ukraine and educated at the Saint Petersburg Conservatory in Russia, where he studied piano with Felix Blumenfeld and harmony and counterpoint with Glazunov. In 1920, while working for the Petrograd Military District Political Administration (PUR), he was one of the lead organizers of two revolutionary mass spectacles, the "Mystery of Liberated Labor," a pseudo-religious mystery play for the May Day festivities, and "The Storming of the Winter Palace" for the celebrations of the third anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution.[1]

He later moved to Berlin, where his father was practising as a doctor, and had some lessons from Busoni. He emigrated in 1925 to the United States and became an American citizen in 1937. Although influenced by Eastern European music traditions, he was able to score typical American movies like Frank Capra's famous Lost Horizon (1937) or It's a Wonderful Life (1946) and also Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939), both with James Stewart. He also worked on Fred Zinnemann's High Noon (1952), which also won him a "Best Song" Oscar for "Do Not Forsake Me, Oh My Darlin'(The Ballad of High Noon)". In 1954, he won the Academy Award for best song of the John Wayne film The High and the Mighty.

Many classic scores followed, many of which were also in Western movies, like The High and the Mighty (1954), Giant (1956), Friendly Persuasion (1956), Gunfight at the O.K. Corral (1957), Rio Bravo (1959), The Alamo (1960), The Guns of Navarone (1961), Town Without Pity (1961), 55 Days at Peking (1963), The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964), The War Wagon (1967), and many more.

Besides cinema he was also active in writing for the small screen, writing some memorable television theme-songs, as for Rawhide (1959) and Gunslinger. He was also hired to write the theme for TV's The Wild Wild West (1965), but the producers rejected his themes and hired Richard Markowitz. A cover version of the theme from Rawhide was performed in the 1980 cult musical film The Blues Brothers.

Dimitri Tiomkin died in London, England in 1979 and was interred in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

Awards and nominations

Academy Awards, USA

  • 1972 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring Adaptation and Original Song" Score for Chaikovsky (1969)
  • 1965 - nominated for "Best Music, Score - Substantially Original" for: The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
  • 1964 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" AND "Best Music, Score - Substantially Original" for 55 Days at Peking (1963)
  • 1962 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for Town Without Pity (1961) AND for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Guns of Navarone (1961)
  • 1961 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" AND for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Alamo (1960)
  • 1961 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for The Young Land (1959)
  • 1959 - won an Oscar for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Old Man and the Sea (1958)
  • 1958 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for Wild Is the Wind (1957)
  • 1957 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for Friendly Persuasion, "Best Scoring of a Dramatic Picture" for "Giant" (1956)
  • 1955 - nominated for "Best Music, Original Song" for The High and the Mighty (1954) and won an Oscar for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for the same movie
  • 1953 - won an Oscar for "Best Music, Original Song" for High Noon (1952)
  • 1950 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for Champion (1949)
  • 1945 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Bridge of San Luis Rey (1944)
  • 1944 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Moon and Sixpence (1943)
  • 1943 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture" for The Corsican Brothers (1941)
  • 1940 - nominated for "Best Music, Scoring" for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington (1939)

Golden Globes

  • 1965 for "Best Original Score" for The Fall of the Roman Empire (1964)
  • 1962 for "Best Motion Picture Score" for The Guns of Navarone (1961) AND for "Best Motion Picture Song" for Town Without Pity (1961)
  • 1961 for "Best Original Score" for The Alamo (1960)
  • 1957 he received the "Special Award" as "Recognition for film music"
  • 1955 he received the "Special Award" "For creative musical contribution to Motion Picture"
  • 1953 for "Best Motion Picture Score" for High Noon (1952)

References

  1. ^ James Von Geldern, Bolshevik Festivals (Berkeley, University of California Press, 1993), 157, Katerina Clark, Petersburg, Crucible of Revolution (Cambridge, Mass., Harvard University Press, 1995), 135-36
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dimitri_Tiomkin&oldid=144494257"