Composer Jerry Goldsmith Dies

Jerry Goldsmith, the Academy Award-winning composer who wrote music for numerous Star Trek films and episodes - including the opening themes for Star Trek: The Next Generation and Star Trek: Voyager as well as several motion pictures - died yesterday at age 75.

Goldsmith, eulogized by The Associated Press (via ABC), passed away in his sleep on Wednesday night after a long struggle with cancer. The classically trained composer had been nominated for 17 Academy Awards, winning one Oscar in addition to five Emmy Awards.

Genre fans know Goldsmith's music not only from Star Trek but from Planet of the Apes, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Total Recall and the classic horror film The Omen for which he won his Academy Award trophy. But Goldsmith also wrote the scores for many dramatic films, including Chinatown, Patton and L.A. Confidential, and for many television shows, among which were The Waltons, Dr. Kildare and the fanfare used during Academy Awards broadcasts.

Born in 1929 in Los Angeles, Goldsmith studied with classical musicians but decided after seeing Spellbound that he wanted to compose for film. A job as a typist at CBS led to assignments composing for radio shows. His first Academy Award nomination was for Freud in 1962.

Among Goldsmith's Star Trek scores are Star Trek: The Motion Picture, whose title theme he adapted for Star Trek: The Next Generation; the music for Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, First Contact, Insurrection and Nemesis; and themes used most recently in the Star Trek: The Experience show Borg Invasion 4D.

Goldsmith is survived by a wife, five children, six grandchildren and a great-grandchild. The staff of the Trek Nation offers condolences to the family and friends of Goldsmith.

More information may be found at CNN, at the Internet Movie Database and in numerous other obituaries this morning.

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