Brad Fiedel
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Brad Fiedel |
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Brad Ira Fiedel (born March 10, 1951 in New York City) is an American movie music composer. Raised in the Village of Bayville, on Long Island's toney North Shore, Fiedel graduated from the Locust Valley High School. After college, he became a popular and progressive composer, and in the 1980s, he worked on several successful movies, predominantly in the action and thriller genres, and pioneered the use of electronic instruments and synthesizers—almost disappearing from the mainstream at the end of the 1990s.[1] He has also served as the keyboardist for Hall and Oats.[2]
He began his career in film in the late 1970s, and wrote extensively for television films and minor cinema releases, until director James Cameron hired him to score the science fiction film The Terminator in 1984, setting the wheels in motion for a successful career. The film went on to become one of the box office hits of its decade, launched the film career of the Austrian bodybuilder Arnold Schwarzenegger, and gave Fiedel his entry in the annals of film music history. The metallic, pounding main theme has since become the defining work of his career.
Since then, Fiedel has scored many popular and successful movies, including Fright Night (1985) and its sequel Fright Night II (1988), The Big Easy (1987), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), The Accused (1988), Blue Steel (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Blink (1994), and True Lies (1994), although in recent years, Fiedel has not been in demand as much as he once was. His last major theatrical score was in 1995, and although he enjoyed a brief period of renewed interest following the release of Terminator 3 in 2003, when Marco Beltrami wrote an orchestral arrangement of his theme, he shows no sign of returning to the movie music field.
Fiedel is married to the actress Ann Dusenberry.
Partial filmography
- The Terminator (1984)
- Fright Night (1985)
- Desert Bloom (1986)
- The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988)
- Fright Night II (1988)
- The Accused (1988)
- True Believer (1989)
- Blue Steel (1990)
- Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
- Striking Distance (1993)
- True Lies (1994)
- Johnny Mnemonic (1995)
- Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003) – themes only
- Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles (2008) – themes only
- Terminator Salvation (2009) – themes only
References
- ^ Stevenson, Joseph. "Biography: Brad Fiedel". Allmusic. Retrieved 13 June 2010.
- ^ Brennan, Sandra. "Biography: Brad Fiedel". Allmovie. Retrieved 13 June 2010.