Biography

Mario Nascimbene was born on November 28, 1913 in Milan, Lombardy, Italy. He was a composer and actor, known for The French Dispatch (2021), Matchstick Men (2003) and Violent Summer (1959). He was married to Mara Caterina Ripari and Tamara Adrian. He died on January 6, 2002 in Rome, Lazio, Italy.

Not to be confused with Italian composer-songwriter Sergio Nascimben (2 April 1921-13 June 1971) who was a frequent musical colleague of Renato Rascel.

Prolific and innovative Italian film composer and orchestrator, a graduate of the Conservatorio Giuseppe Verdi in Milan. In addition to film scores and jazz, he also wrote symphonic and chamber music. Nascimbene invented 'Mixerama', a precursor of the sampler, which allowed him to integrate music with natural, human and artificially-created sounds. He was the first Italian composer to write original music for Hollywood productions, beginning with The Barefoot Contessa (1954).

In his autobiography "Malgre Moi Musicista" (1992) Nascimbene mentioned that he scored American movie "Un'Americana nella Casbah" in 1954. This was the very late release of "Algiers" (1938) with Charles Boyer and reviewed in the Italian press in 1954. In the 1950s Hollywood films were occasionally re-scored by Italian composers to satisfy the demands of the Italian music unions.