Biography

Leonard Rosenman was born on September 7, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986), Barry Lyndon (1975) and La La Land (2016). He was married to Judie Gregg, Lyn Furr, Kay Scott and Adele Bracker. He died on March 4, 2008 in Woodland Hills, California, USA.

He was a concert composer when his friend James Dean introduced him to director Elia Kazan. Kazan asked the composer to write the score for "East of Eden," thus beginning Rosenman's film career.

He was a good friend of Leonard Nimoy, who hired him to compose the score for Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986).

Served in the Pacific with the U.S. Army Air Force in World War II.

Oscar and Emmy award-winning American film composer, a graduate from the University of California, Berkeley. Studied composition under Arnold Schoenberg, Roger Sessions and Luigi Dallapiccola. In addition to his often modernistic film scores (of which a notable example is The Cobweb (1955)), he wrote a double-bass concerto, two violin concertos and, in 1996, the "Dinosaur" symphony.

After all, you're supporting something. That's what I do. The main thing is that you have communication with the filmmaker. By the time you get it, they've been on it for years. In six weeks I'm expected to crystallize their ideas. Psychologically, it's very stressful for them because it's the only time they lose control of the film.

I try to enter directly into the movie's plot and tell the audience something about the story that they can't possibly perceive by just watching the film. For example, if I write for a scene of two people kissing and I write some horrendous music, you know more than just a kiss is happening. I'm always interested in participating that way. Just to write sad music for a sad scene, sure, I'll do it, but it doesn't offer me a great challenge.

[on Stanley Kubrick] He's one of the best friends I'll ever have, and we're both determined to preserve that friendship...which is why, following "Barry Lyndon", we've agreed never to work together on another movie for the rest of our lives.