Max Steiner

From Grokipedia

Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner (May 10, 1888 – December 28, 1971) was an Austrian-born composer and conductor who became a pioneering figure in Hollywood film music, scoring over 300 films and earning a reputation as one of the medium's most influential creators., Gone with the Wind (1939), Casablanca (1942), and Now, Voyager (1942)., Now, Voyager (1942), and Since You Went Away (1944)—and received 17 additional nominations, while advocating for composers' rights, including residuals and better working conditions.( His use of leitmotifs, synchronized orchestral cues, and intense work ethic—often fueled by amphetamines to meet grueling deadlines—shaped the symphonic style of film scoring and influenced generations of composers, cementing his legacy as the "father of film music."(

In brief

Maximilian Raoul Steiner (10 May 1888 – 28 December 1971) was an Austrian composer and conductor who emigrated to America and became one of Hollywood's greatest musical composers. Steiner was a child prodigy who conducted his first operetta when he was twelve and became a full-time professional, proficient at composing, arranging, and conducting, by the time he was fifteen. Threatened with internment in England during World War I, he fled to Broadway; and in 1929 he moved to Hollywood, where he became one of the first composers to write music scores for films.

He is often referred to as "the father of film music", as Steiner played a major part in creating the tradition of writing music for films, along with composers Dimitri Tiomkin, Erich Wolfgang Korngold, Franz Waxman, Alfred Newman, Bernard Herrmann, and Miklós Rózsa. Steiner composed over 300 film scores with RKO Pictures and Warner Bros., and was nominated for 24 Academy Awards, winning three: The Informer (1935); Now, Voyager (1942); and Since You Went Away (1944). Besides his Oscar-winning scores, some of Steiner's popular works include King Kong (1933), Little Women (1933), Jezebel (1938), and Casablanca (1942), though he did not compose its love theme, "As Time Goes By".