- Born
- Died
- Paul Francis Webster was born on December 20, 1907 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for Calamity Jane (1953), Mutiny on the Bounty (1962) and Spider-Man (2002). He died on March 22, 1984 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
- Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.
- Attended Cornell University from 1927 to 1928 and New York University from 1928 to 1930, but failed to graduate.
- Wrote the lyrics to the memorable theme song for the animated 1960s Spider-Man series. The theme song has since become synonymous with the title character. It was played in some form in all three Spider-Man films. And has been covered by artists such as Ramones, The Distillers and Michael Bublé.
- Enjoyed an interesting second career devising lyrics for epic film themes of the 1950s and 1960s. The resulting songs were intended for promotional purposes and were not often included in the finished film, usually being released on gramophone records or sheet music. Webster's epic songs, adapted from the main themes of the original composers, included "Lygia" (Miklós Rózsa, Webster) from Quo Vadis (1951), "Farewell to Arms" (Mario Nascimbene, Webster) from A Farewell to Arms (1957), "Song of Ruth" (Franz Waxman, Webster) from The Story of Ruth (1960), "The Falcon and the Dove" (Rozsa, Webster) from El Cid (1961) and "Song of the Bible" (Mayuzumi, Webster) from The Bible in the Beginning... (1966).
- From 1950, under contract to MGM.
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