Basil Poledouris
Basil Poledouris |
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Basilis "Basil" Konstantine Poledouris (August 21, 1945 - November 8, 2006) was an American film composer.
Biography
Born in Kansas City, Missouri, Basil Poledouris credited two influences with guiding him towards music: the first was composer Miklós Rózsa, the second was his Greek Orthodox heritage. Poledouris was raised in the church, and used to sit in services, enthralled with the choir's sound [1]. At age 7 he began piano lessons, and eventually enrolled at the University of Southern California to study both film and music. Several short films to which he contributed still reside in the university's archives. At USC he met directors John Milius and Randal Kleiser, with both of whom the composer would later collaborate. In 1985, he scored Flesh & Blood for director Paul Verhoeven, again establishing another ongoing collaboration.
Poledouris became renowned for his powerfully epic style of orchestral composition and his intricate thematic designs, and garnered attention for his scores to The Blue Lagoon (1980; dir: Kleiser), Conan the Barbarian (1982; dir: Milius), Conan the Destroyer (1984), Red Dawn (1984; dir: Milius), RoboCop (1987; dir: Verhoeven), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Free Willy (1993) and its sequels, Starship Troopers (1997; dir: Verhoeven) and For Love of the Game (1999).
His studio, Blowtorch Flats, is located in Venice, CA and is a professional mixing facility specializing in film and media production.
Poledouris married his wife, Bobbie, in 1969 and had two daughters, Zoë and Alexis. The elder, Zoë Poledouris, is an actress and film composer who occasionally collaborated with her father composing film soundtracks.
His score for Conan the Barbarian is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of motion picture scoring ever written.[2][3][4][5]
He spent the last four years of his life living on Vashon Island, in Washington state, and died on November 8, 2006 in Los Angeles, California [6], aged 61, due to complications from cancer.
Filmography
Films
- Extreme Close-Up (1973)
- Tintorera (1977)
- Big Wednesday (1978)
- The House of God (1980)
- The Blue Lagoon (1980)
- Summer Lovers (1982)
- Conan the Barbarian (1982)
- Red Dawn (1984)
- Protocol (1984)
- Conan the Destroyer (1984)
- Making the Grade (1984)
- Flesh & Blood (1985)
- Iron Eagle (1986)
- Cherry 2000 (1987)
- No Man's Land (1987)
- RoboCop (1987)
- Split Decisions (1988)
- Spellbinder (1988)
- Farewell to the King (1989)
- Wired (1989)
- Quigley Down Under (1990)
- The Hunt for Red October (1990)
- Flight of the Intruder (1991)
- White Fang (1991)
- Return to the Blue Lagoon (1991)
- Harley Davidson and the Marlboro Man (1991)
- Wind (1992)
- Robocop 3 (1993)
- Hot Shots! Part Deux (1993)
- Free Willy (1993)
- On Deadly Ground (1994)
- Serial Mom (1994)
- Lassie (1994)
- The Jungle Book (1994)
- Free Willy 2 (1995)
- Under Siege 2 (1995)
- It's My Party (1996)
- Celtic Pride (1996)
- Amanda (1996)
- The War at Home (1996)
- Switchback (1997)
- Breakdown (1997)
- Starship Troopers (1997)
- Les Miserables (1998)
- Kimberly (1999)
- For Love of the Game (1999)
- Mickey Blue Eyes (1999)
- Cecil B. DeMented (2000)
- Crocodile Dundee in Los Angeles (2001)
- The Touch (2002)
- The Legend of Butch and Sundance (2003)
Mini-series
- Amerika (14-hour mini-series) (1987)
- Lonesome Dove (8-hour mini-series) (1989) (Emmy Award Winner for Best Score)
- Zoya (4-hour mini-series) (theme) (1995)
Television
- Congratulations, It's a Boy (1971)
- Three for the Road (1974)
- Hollywood 90028 (1979)
- Dolphin (1979)
- A Whale for the Killing (1981)
- Fire on the Mountain (1981)
- Amazons (1984)
- Single Women, Single Bars (1984)
- Alfred Hitchcock Presents (pilot) (1985)
- Misfits of Science (pilot) (1986)
- The Twilight Zone: "Profile in Silver" (1986)
- The Twilight Zone: "Monsters" (1986)
- The Twilight Zone: "A Message from Charity" (1986)
- Prison for Children (1987)
- Island Sons (pilot) (1987)
- Intrigue (pilot) (1988)
- L.A. Takedown (pilot) (1989)
- Nasty Boys (pilot) (1989)
- Nasty Boys: "Lone Justice" (1990)
- Life & Times of Ned Blessing (pilot) (1991)
- If These Walls Could Talk II (2000)
- Love and Treason (2001)
Other works
- 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games (Opening Ceremony)
- Conan Sword & Sorcery Spectacular (Universal Studios' live stage show)
- American Journeys (A Circle-Vision 360° film at Disneyland and Magic Kingdom)
- Flyers (IMAX)
- Behold Hawaii (IMAX)