Emil Newman - Biography

Emil Newman (January 20, 1911—August 30, 1984) was an American composer and conductor who worked on over 200 films and TV shows. He was nominated for an Oscar for musical direction on the classic Sun Valley Serenade (1941).

A native of Connecticut, Emil Newman entered films in 1940 as the musical director on thirteen films. He received credit on twenty-five films in 1941 and twenty-eight films in 1942, one of which, Whispering Ghosts, contained his first (uncredited) contribution as a composer. He had fifteen titles in 1943, including "Musical Direction" for the famous all-black musical Stormy Weather and the 20th Century Fox wartime film Chetniks! The Fighting Guerrillas, nineteen in 1944, seventeen in 1945 and sixteen in 1946, including Hugo Friedhofer's Academy Award score for The Best Years of Our Lives, which he also conducted. Between 1950 and 1965, he was the composer on twenty-three films, most of which were lower-budget B movies. He also provided the music for numerous 1950s TV shows.

Newman died in Woodland Hills, a suburb of Los Angeles.

Family connections, marriage and children

Emil Newman's older brother was renowned film composer Alfred Newman (1901–1970) whose sons David and Thomas are also composer, and his younger brother was another famous film composer, Lionel Newman (1916–1989). Another brother, Irving, was the father of still another acclaimed film musical personality, songwriter Randy Newman.

Emil Newman was married to bit-part actress Eva May Hoffman aka Eve Farrell. They had two children, daughter Arleen (born 1939) and son William Robert (born August 14, 1937).

The offspring of William Robert Newman are Jill Newman, Sarah Devries, Memo Marcus and Jaice Newman. The offspring of Arleen Newman and Dennis Crosby (son of Bing Crosby) are Erin Colleen Crosby and Kelly Lee Crosby. Dennis Crosby also adopted Katherine Denise Buelle, Arleen's daughter by her first husband Mike Buelle.

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