Jerry Fielding (born Joshua Itzhak Feldman; June 17, 1922 – February 17, 1980)Redman, Nick
"Fielding, Jerry"
Jackson, Kenneth T.; Markoe, Karen E.; Markoe, Arnold (1995). ''Dictionary of American Biography; Supplement 10: 1976–1980''. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons. pp. 238–239. . was an American jazz musician, bandleader, arranger, and film composer. He was a three-time

Oscar Oscar, OSCAR, or The Oscar may refer to: People and fictional and mythical characters * Oscar (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters named Oscar, Óscar or Oskar * Oscar (footballer, born 1954), Brazilian footballer ...

nominee for Best Original Score, and an

Emmy Award The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award categor ...

winner. He began his career as a popular arranger for radio orchestras, but was

blacklisted Blacklisting is the action of a group or authority compiling a blacklist of people, countries or other entities to be avoided or distrusted as being deemed unacceptable to those making the list; if people are on a blacklist, then they are considere ...

in 1953, subsequently working in

Las Vegas Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

. In the following decade, he re-emerged as a composer of film and television scores, most notably Westerns, crime, and action films. He was best known for his collaborations with

Sam Peckinpah David Samuel Peckinpah (; February 21, 1925 – December 28, 1984) was an American film director and screenwriter. His 1969 Western epic '' The Wild Bunch'' received two Academy Award nominations and was ranked No. 80 on the American Film Instit ...

Clint Eastwood Clinton Eastwood Jr. (born May 31, 1930) is an American actor and film director. After achieving success in the Western (genre), Western TV series ''Rawhide (TV series), Rawhide'', Eastwood rose to international fame with his role as the "Ma ...

, and

Michael Winner Michael Robert Winner (30 October 1935 – 21 January 2013) was an English filmmaker, writer, and media personality. He is known for directing numerous action, thriller, and black comedy films in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, including several c ...

. His notable film scores include '' The Wild Bunch'' (1969), '' Johnny Got His Gun'' (1971), '' Straw Dogs'' (also 1971), '' The Mechanic'' (1972), ''The Gambler'' (1974), ''

The Bad News Bears ''The Bad News Bears'' is a 1976 American sports comedy film directed by Michael Ritchie and written by Bill Lancaster. It stars Walter Matthau as an alcoholic ex-baseball pitcher who becomes a coach for a youth baseball team known as the Bear ...

'' (1976), ''The Outlaw Josey Wales'' (also 1976), '' Demon Seed'' (1977), and '' Escape from Alcatraz'' (1979). He was also noted for his work on the television series ''Star Trek'' and ''Kolchak: The Night Stalker''.

Early life and education

Fielding was born Joshua Itzhak Feldman in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, United States, and its county seat. It is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, second-most populous city in Pennsylvania (after Philadelphia) and the List of Un ...

, to

Russian Jewish The history of the Jews in Russia and areas historically connected with it goes back at least 1,500 years. Jews in Russia have historically constituted a large religious and ethnic diaspora; the Russian Empire at one time hosted the largest po ...

parent Hiram Harris Feldman and Esther Feldman. By 1930, "Joshua Itzhak" had been discarded once and for all, as evidenced by both the 1930 US Census and the recollections, published more than seven decades later, of fellow Pittsburgher

Henry Mancini Henry Mancini ( ; born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was an American composer, conductor, arranger, pianist and flutist. Often cited as one of the greatest composers in the history of film, he won four Academy Awards, ...

. During the ensuing decade, Jerry briefly experimented with the

trombone The trombone (, Italian, French: ''trombone'') is a musical instrument in the Brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player's lips vibrate inside a mouthpiece, causing the Standing wave, air c ...

, then took up the

clarinet The clarinet is a Single-reed instrument, single-reed musical instrument in the woodwind family, with a nearly cylindrical bore (wind instruments), bore and a flared bell. Clarinets comprise a Family (musical instruments), family of instrume ...

and joined the high school band, eventually earning a scholarship to the Carnegie Institute for Instrumentalists. After a short attendance, because of ill health he was bedridden for two years with an undiagnosed ailment. While housebound, Feldman listened to the radio, and became a fan of the

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

sound and

Bernard Herrmann Bernard Herrmann (born Maximillian Herman; June 29, 1911December 24, 1975) was an American composer and conductor best known for his work in film scoring. As a conductor, he championed the music of lesser-known composers. He is widely regarde ...

's music for

Orson Welles George Orson Welles (May 6, 1915 – October 10, 1985) was an American director, actor, writer, producer, and magician who is remembered for his innovative work in film, radio, and theatre. He is among the greatest and most influential film ...

's radio dramas.

Freelance arranger

Somewhat recuperated, Feldman worked at Pittsburgh's Stanley Theater (where his fellow players included Mancini,

Erroll Garner Erroll Louis Garner (June 15, 1921 – January 2, 1977) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his swing playing and ballads. His instrumental ballad "Misty", his best-known composition, has become a jazz standard. It was first re ...

and

Billy May Edward William May Jr. (November 10, 1916 – January 22, 2004) was an American composer, arranger and trumpeter. He composed film and television music for ''The Green Hornet (TV series), The Green Hornet'' (1966), ''The Mod Squad (TV series), T ...

), learning composition and arranging there from the theater's pit orchestra conductor, Max Adkins (as did Mancini and another notable Pittsburgh native,

Billy Strayhorn William Thomas Strayhorn (November 29, 1915 – May 31, 1967) was an American jazz composer, pianist, lyricist, and arranger who collaborated with bandleader and composer Duke Ellington for nearly three decades. His compositions include "Take the ...

). In June 1941, shortly before his nineteenth birthday, Feldman left Pittsburgh to work for

Alvino Rey Alvin McBurney (July 1, 1908 – February 24, 2004), known by his stage name Alvino Rey, was an American jazz guitarist and bandleader. Career Alvin McBurney was born in Oakland, California, United States, but grew up in Cleveland, Ohio. Early i ...

's swing band. His contributions to the band's repertoire included an arrangement of "

Three Blind Mice "Three Blind Mice" is an English nursery rhyme and musical round.I. Opie and P. Opie, ''The Oxford Dictionary of Nursery Rhymes'' (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1951, 2nd edn., 1997), p. 306. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 3753. ...

" and an original composition, "Picnic in Purgatory". This job ended when most of the band was drafted. Too frail for service, Feldman became vocal arranger for Lucy Ann Polk's ''Town Criers'' and then joined

Kay Kyser James Kern Kyser (June 18, 1905 – July 23, 1985), known as Kay Kyser, was an American bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s. Early years Kyser was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Emily Royster Kyser ...

's band. He became their chief arranger in 1945. In addition, he arranged for the big bands of

Mitchell Ayres Mitchell Ayres (December 24, 1909 – September 5, 1969) was an orchestra leader, music arranger, composer and performer. He is best known for his many years of work with Perry Como on radio, records, and television and as the musical condu ...

,Ames, Walter. "Frustrated Jerry Fielding Scoring On Own Video Show". ''

The Los Angeles Times The ''Los Angeles Times'' is an American daily newspaper that began publishing in Los Angeles, California, in 1881. Based in the Greater Los Angeles city of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper in the U.S. and the larges ...

''. October 17, 1952. Claude Thornhill,

Jimmie Lunceford James Melvin Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era. Early life Lunceford was born on a farm in the Evergreen community, west of the Tombigbee River, near Fulton, ...

Tommy Dorsey Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. (November 19, 1905 – November 26, 1956) was an American jazz trombone, trombonist, composer, conductor and bandleader of the big band era. He was known as the "Sentimental Gentleman of Swing" because of his smooth-to ...

Charlie Barnet Charles Daly Barnet (October 26, 1913 – September 4, 1991) was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, and bandleader. His major recordings were "Nagasaki", "Skyliner", "Cherokee", "The Wrong Idea", "Scotch and Soda", "In a Mizz", and "South ...

and Les Brown.

Radio work: from Feldman to Fielding

Feldman arranged for the '' Kay Kyser's Kollege of Musical Knowledge'' radio program, and then became the band leader for several radio programs: ''The Jack Paar Program'' (1947–1949), '' The Hardy Family'' 1952–1953, as well as work on '' The Fitch Bandwagon'', ''

The Life of Riley ''The Life of Riley'' is an American radio situation comedy series of the 1940s that was adapted into a 1949 feature film, as well as two different television series, and a comic book. Radio series The radio program initially aired on the B ...

'', and the '' Sweeney and March Show''. In the spring of 1947, having suitably impressed prospective employer, radio emcee

Jack Paar Jack Harold Paar (May 1, 1918 – January 27, 2004) was an American talk show host, writer, radio and television comedian, and film actor. He was the second host of ''The Tonight Show'' from 1957 to 1962. ''Time (magazine), Time'' magazine's ob ...

(and his production team), Feldman was compelled to change his name as a prerequisite to securing the position of providing live on-air music (records were still not allowed on the air in 1947). He chose the name Fielding, and he would recount this transformation with some bitterness almost 25 years later:

They told me I was not going on with any name as Jewish as Feldman. I don't think there's any lessening of prejudice today. There's just more politeness about where and when it happens now. I think it's going to be the downfall of Homo sapiens.

In 1948, Fielding replaced

as musical director on

Groucho Marx Julius Henry "Groucho" Marx (; October 2, 1890 – August 19, 1977) was an American comedian, actor, writer, and singer who performed in films and vaudeville on television, radio, and the stage. He is considered one of America's greatest comed ...

's radio program ''

You Bet Your Life ''You Bet Your Life'' is an American comedy quiz series that has aired on both radioTomkins, Les
"Jerry Fielding Interview One: From the Bands to the Films"
Jazz Professional. !974. Retrieved 2014-04-16. Fielding later recalled the reasons for doing this: "So a couple of rofessional jazzguys formed little bands, not to go in buses on the road, but to record with, do a few weekends at the Palladium, just rehearse, and keep the thing going. We were doing it for each other, really. And the first records I made—that's what they were. Frank had put a band together for the Palladium: and I said: "If he can do it, I can do it." I had five radio shows at the time: so we put this bunch together, and we started to do some wild things. ... In that band were Conrad Gozzo, Sam Donahue, Shelly Manne, Johnny Williams, Buddy Collette, Red Callender—everybody. I knew what these guys could do, and I wrote to the absolute limit of their abilities, which no one else did. We did some spectacular performances. Albert Marks recorded us a couple of times, and those are the early Trend records which are such collector's items now. I think they were collector's items the day they went in the store; they never really sold well." The group would be featured on Fielding's own short-lived but well-received all-music TV series, the JF TV Show, and by the following summer, had released its debut LP, ''Jerry Fielding and His Great New Orchestra'' (

Trend A fad, trend, or craze is any form of collective behavior that develops within a culture, a generation, or social group in which a group of people enthusiastically follow an impulse for a short time period. Fads are objects or behaviors th ...

, 1953).

Blacklisted, but welcomed in Vegas

Though never a

Communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

, Fielding was called before the

House Un-American Activities Committee The House Committee on Un-American Activities (HCUA), popularly the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC), was an investigative United States Congressional committee, committee of the United States House of Representatives, created in 19 ...

in December 1953 during the anti-Communist hysteria, particularly in

Congress A congress is a formal meeting of the representatives of different countries, constituent states, organizations, trade unions, political parties, or other groups. The term originated in Late Middle English to denote an encounter (meeting of ...

, and the

FBI The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic Intelligence agency, intelligence and Security agency, security service of the United States and Federal law enforcement in the United States, its principal federal law enforcement ag ...

, who were in the throes of punishing the many talented FDR supporters in entertainment who had helped to defeat isolationists before

Pearl Harbor Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the Reci ...

. This was done by smearing them with innuendo and charges of Communism. Fielding's sin appeared to be his Radio Union membership (which was obligatory for all nationally broadcast radio performers) which was in turn one of a dozen or more unions in the Hollywood Writers Mobilization which was founded in 1941 to promote show business efforts against Nazism and in support of the American war effort. However, Fielding later joked that all the committee really wanted was to get him to name

as a communist, which he refused to do. He also believed he was being singled out for his integrated bands, using African-American jazz performers in his radio and television music, which was carried live at the time. All integration and equal rights to black performers were deeply offensive to some HUAC members, and to FBI head,

J. Edgar Hoover John Edgar Hoover (January 1, 1895 – May 2, 1972) was an American attorney and law enforcement administrator who served as the fifth and final director of the Bureau of Investigation (BOI) and the first director of the Federal Bureau o ...

. Fielding took the Fifth Amendment, refusing to divulge the names of any colleagues who might be suspected of "Communism", doing so knowing that pleading the Fifth would damage his thriving radio and television career, as it did. He was blacklisted by the national television and radio networks, who were being pressed by these same forces with a similar fate if they "failed to cooperate." The blacklist destroyed Fielding's embryonic career as an on-screen television host, but the talented musician survived what would be a decade-long exile from broadcasting by returning to his live performing and recording careers, both as a featured artist and a freelance arranger. In

Las Vegas, Nevada Las Vegas, colloquially referred to as Vegas, is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Nevada and the county seat of Clark County. The Las Vegas Valley metropolitan area is the largest within the greater Mojave Desert, and second-l ...

he led a band at the Royal Las Vegas Hotel; in addition, he toured for the only time with his name orchestra, which also released several albums during this period, first for a little-known independent label, with ''Jerry Fielding Plays a Dance Concert'' (

, 1954), followed by ''Sweet with a Beat'' (1955), ''Fielding's Formula'' (1957), and ''Hollywoodwind Jazztet'' (1958), all on

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

. His jazz and pop background allowed him to survive while the blacklist destroyed the concert and film-based careers of musicians such as Schoenberg champion and film composer

Louis Gruenberg Louis Gruenberg ( ; June 9, 1964) was a Russian-born American pianist and prolific composer, especially of operas. An early champion of Schoenberg and other contemporary composers, he was also a highly respected Oscar-nominated film composer in H ...

and the first black Broadway and film star,

Paul Robeson Paul Leroy Robeson ( ; April 9, 1898 – January 23, 1976) was an American bass-baritone concert artist, actor, professional American football, football player, and activist who became famous both for his cultural accomplishments and for h ...

The end of the blacklist

In 1959, musical star

Betty Hutton Betty Hutton (born Elizabeth June Thornburg; February 26, 1921 – March 12, 2007) was an American stage, film, and television actress, comedian, dancer, and singer. She rose to fame in the 1940s as a contract player for Paramount Pictures, appea ...

insisted that the still-blacklisted Jerry Fielding direct her new series, '' The Betty Hutton Show'', a television series for

CBS CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS (an abbreviation of its original name, Columbia Broadcasting System), is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainme ...

, having gotten to know him while they were both working the music circuit in Las Vegas.Cook, Howard
"Fielding Inked by Signature"
''Billboard''. October 26, 1959. Retrieved 2014-04-16. Television had been a surreptitious haven for the blacklisted writers, directors and composers for many years, and it was

Desilu Productions Desilu Productions, Inc. () was an American television production company founded and co-owned by husband and wife Desi Arnaz and Lucille Ball. The company is best known for shows such as ''I Love Lucy'', '' The Lucy Show'', '' Mannix'', '' The ...

, founded by

Lucille Ball Lucille Désirée Ball (August 6, 1911 – April 26, 1989) was an American actress, comedian, producer, and studio executive. She was recognized by ''Time (magazine), Time'' in 2020 as one of the most influential women of the 20th century for h ...

, who'd briefly been a member of the Communist Party and also dragged before HUAC in the early 1950s, who backed Hutton's choice. With her own career hanging by a thread, Hutton – along with Desilu and CBS – made a brave stand against the blacklist in television, but the show unfortunately failed. Fielding's career as a film composer did not begin until 1962, when leading Hollywood director

Otto Preminger Otto Ludwig Preminger ( ; ; 5 December 1905 – 23 April 1986) was an Austrian Americans, Austrian-American film and theatre director, film producer, and actor. He directed more than 35 feature films in a five-decade career after leaving the the ...

, himself a refugee of Nazism, hired him to compose the score for his all-star, Washington, D.C.-based adaptation of the best-selling novel, ''

Advise and Consent ''Advise and Consent'' is a 1959 political fiction novel by Allen Drury that explores the United States Senate confirmation of controversial Secretary of State nominee Robert Leffingwell, whose promotion is endangered due to growing evidence ...

''. Preminger deliberately violated and thus finally ended the blacklist in American filmmaking – he released ''

The Man with the Golden Arm ''The Man with the Golden Arm'' is a 1955 American independent drama film noir directed by Otto Preminger, based on the novel of the same name by Nelson Algren. Starring Frank Sinatra, Eleanor Parker, Kim Novak, Arnold Stang and Darren Mc ...

'' in 1955 without the

Production Code The Motion Picture Production Code was a set of industry guidelines for the self-censorship of content that was applied to most motion pictures released by major studios in the United States from 1934 to 1968. It is also popularly known as th ...

's seal of approval and named blacklisted screenwriter Dalton Trumbo in his first onscreen film credit since his blacklisting fifteen years before, in '' Exodus'' (1960), his hiring of blacklisted actor

Franchot Tone Stanislaus Pascal Franchot Tone (February 27, 1905 – September 18, 1968) was an American actor, producer, and director of stage, film and television. He was a leading man in the 1930s and early 1940s, and at the height of his career was known ...

and composer Fielding for ''

'' was particularly fitting for a film which attempted to expose the evil of innuendo and blacklisting in political Washington. It was his friend, prolific and long-suffering blacklistee Dalton Trumbo, who had suggested Fielding to Preminger for the job.

Composing for the screen

Preminger had used the great jazz leader,

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D ...

and his band for an all-jazz score for his pioneering realist trial drama ''

Anatomy of a Murder ''Anatomy of a Murder'' is a 1959 American legal drama film produced and directed by Otto Preminger. The screenplay by Wendell Mayes was based on the 1958 novel of the same name written by Michigan Supreme Court Justice John D. Voelker under ...

'' (1959) – unusual at a time when most film scores were still lush symphonic orchestrations and even more unusually in that he featured the African-American Ellington and other band members in the film itself. Thus Fielding was given permission to employ his own wide-ranging and eclectic musical skills for the film. It was a remarkable debut score, the first to contain Fielding's signature ability to bring dark irony to his themes. Fielding was now also free to write television scores for hit 1960 shows, '' Mission Impossible'' (1966) (though not the best known theme, which is by

Lalo Schifrin Boris Claudio "Lalo" Schifrin (born June 21, 1932) is an Argentine-American pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. He is best known for his large body of film and TV scores since the 1950s, incorporating jazz and Music of Latin America, Lati ...

) and ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' in second and third seasons. It was his composing for a contemporary made-for-TV Western, '' Noon Wine'', directed by then-unknown

, that led to Fielding's breakthrough score for Peckinpah's first critical and box-office hit, '' The Wild Bunch'' (1969) as well as a volatile but ultimately fruitful collaboration between the two men. A

neo-noir Neo-noir is a film genre that adapts the visual style and themes of 1940s and 1950s American film noir for contemporary audiences, often with more graphic depictions of violence and sexuality. During the late 1970s and the early 1980s, the term ...

Western with a wordless, staggeringly violent final shootout still imitated to this day, ''The Wild Bunch'' quartet of taciturn, bitter gunmen, led by

William Holden William Franklin Holden (né Beedle Jr.; April 17, 1918 – November 12, 1981) was an American actor and one of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s. He won the Academy Award for Best Actor for the film '' Stalag 17'' (1953) and the Pri ...

, are given power, humor and voice largely through Fielding's brilliant score. The composer "caught the weariness, dust, dirt and blood of a vanishing West in a rich

underscore An underscore or underline is a line drawn under a segment of text. In proofreading, underscoring is a convention that says "set this text in italic type", traditionally used on manuscript or typescript as an instruction to the printer. Its ...

that interspersed sprightly action cues with wistful Mexican folk melodies and nostalgic, bittersweet dirges", writes British film composer Heathcliff Blair. The soundtrack brought his first nomination for an Oscar for Best Dramatic Score. "The Wild Bunch gave me a chance to illustrate to the public, and the entertainment industry, that if a composer is given real freedom to create, he can produce a score that is unlike any other ever written", Fielding said later. In his next film outing, the quaint English countryside is blown apart by sadistic violence in Peckinpah's second masterpiece, '' Straw Dogs'' (1971) in which Fielding for the first time used

Stravinsky Igor Fyodorovich Stravinsky ( – 6 April 1971) was a Russian composer and conductor with French citizenship (from 1934) and American citizenship (from 1945). He is widely considered one of the most important and influential composers of ...

-influenced tone clusters, another highly-influential score whose echoes can be heard, for example, in the following year's '' The French Connection'' which has a brittle quarter-tone score by jazz composer

Don Ellis Donald Johnson Ellis (July 25, 1934 – December 17, 1978) was an American jazz trumpeter, drummer, composer, and bandleader. He is best known for his extensive musical experimentation, particularly in the area of time signatures. Later in his ...

. ''Straw Dogs'' was also followed by an Oscar nomination. The following year, in Peckinpah's '' The Getaway'' (1972), a troubled production starring

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture, made him a top box office draw for his films of the late ...

and Ali MacGraw, Fielding's score was removed from the final picture. It was replaced by music of

Quincy Jones Quincy Delight Jones Jr. (March 14, 1933 – November 3, 2024) was an American record producer, composer, arranger, conductor, trumpeter, and bandleader. Over the course of his seven-decade career, he received List of awards and nominations re ...

, much to Fielding's shock and dismay, an ordeal documented in a short film by his wife, Camille and daughter Elizabeth Fielding in 2007. Peckinpah then asked Fielding to compose around songs by Bob Dylan, for '' Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid'' (1973). While already lionized for his protest and rock music by 1972, Dylan had no formal musical training whatsoever and Fielding eventually backed out in frustration. Despite this, Fielding returned to score Peckinpah's surreal anti-Western, ''

Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia ''Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia'' () is a 1974 neo-Western film directed by Sam Peckinpah, co-written by Peckinpah and Gordon Dawson from a story by Peckinpah and Frank Kowalski, and starring Warren Oates and Isela Vega, with Robert W ...

'' (1974). In this black comedy Fielding again expresses the despairing subtext and unspoken whimsy of his frequently inchoate collaborator, this time in a film whose exercise in futility seems a personal statement by Peckinpah indeed. "In many ways, Sam doesn't know what the hell he's talking about", Fielding said of the director, whom he considered a close friend. "In other ways, he's a fantastically gifted man." Fielding claimed the two used to sort out their differences in fist fights. Fielding had fruitful and rather less stressful relationships with two other leading 1970s action directors. For

he demonstrated his versatility through six films, from the first jazz-tinged score for a Western in '' Lawman'' (1971) to the Gothic period melodrama '' The Nightcomers'' (1971), where Fielding delighted in creating a neo-Baroque orchestral score of which he was most proud. Winner would go on to team with

Charles Bronson Charles Bronson (born Charles Dennis Buchinsky; November 3, 1921 – August 30, 2003) was an American actor. He was known for his roles in action films and his "granite features and brawny physique". Bronson was born into extreme poverty in ...

in ''Death Wish''. His last film for Winner was the 1978 remake of '' The Big Sleep'', starring

Robert Mitchum Robert Charles Durman Mitchum (August 6, 1917 – July 1, 1997) was an American actor. He is known for his antihero roles and film noir appearances. He received nominations for an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award. He received a star on the Holl ...

and considered a classic of 1970s neo-LA Noir. His collaboration with the famously jazz-loving

began when Eastwood chose Fielding to compose the score to '' The Outlaw Josey Wales''. Fielding presumably didn't know that the author of the original novel, Forrest Carter, was a Klansman and segregationist. Fielding, assuming he was scoring a popular young people's Western novel, researched and included Irish folk tunes from the Civil War, creating another newly explored direction for period films and winning his third and final Oscar nomination. On that Oscar night, Fielding was up against Jerry Goldsmith's ''

The Omen ''The Omen'' is a 1976 supernatural horror film directed by Richard Donner and written by David Seltzer. An international co-production of the United Kingdom and the United States, it stars Gregory Peck, Lee Remick, David Warner, Harvey Sp ...

'', Lalo Schifrin's ''

Voyage of the Damned ''Voyage of the Damned'' is a 1976 drama (film and television), drama film directed by Stuart Rosenberg, with an Ensemble cast, all-star cast featuring Faye Dunaway, Oskar Werner, Lee Grant, Max von Sydow, James Mason, Lynne Frederick and Malco ...

'', and the two final scores by his former hero in 1930s radio, prolific Hitchcock favorite

, for Scorsese's ''

Taxi Driver ''Taxi Driver'' is a 1976 American neo-noir psychological drama film directed by Martin Scorsese and written by Paul Schrader. Set in a morally decaying New York City following the Vietnam War, it stars Robert De Niro as veteran Marine and ...

'' and de Palma's '' Obsession''. (Goldsmith won.) In his next two films for Eastwood, Fielding employed urban scores featuring living jazz musicians for '' The Enforcer'' (1976) and '' The Gauntlet'' (1977). Other notable scores were for '' Demon Seed'' (1977), that included electronic instruments and atonal passages; and ''

'' (1976), inspired by the 19th century opera ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

'' by French composer,

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

. His final scores were for the films ''

Cries in the Night ''Cries in the Night'', more popularly released as ''Funeral Home'', is a 1980 Canadian slasher film A slasher film is a subgenre of horror films involving a killer or a group of killers stalking and murdering a group of people, usually by use ...

'' and ''Below the Belt'' (both 1980).

Popular television themes

Fielding combined his film scores with television work, not an unusual combination at the time, particularly since the theme song for a hit television series could go on paying dividends for years, generating royalties every time it was played on the air. He scored two episodes of the first ''

television series A television show, TV program (), or simply a TV show, is the general reference to any content produced for viewing on a television set that is broadcast via over-the-air, satellite, and cable, or distributed digitally on streaming plat ...

: cult classic ''

The Trouble with Tribbles "The Trouble with Tribbles" is the fifteenth episode of the second season of the American science fiction television series ''Star Trek''. Written by David Gerrold and directed by Joseph Pevney, it was first broadcast on December 29, 1967. In ...

'' and '' Spectre of the Gun''. He also wrote the title themes for what became enduring 1960s shows of the network era: ''

Hogan's Heroes ''Hogan's Heroes'' is an American television sitcom created by Bernard Fein and Albert S. Ruddy which is set in a Prisoner-of-war camp, prisoner-of-war (POW) camp in Nazi Germany during World War II, and centers around a group of Allied prisoner ...

'' and ''

The Bionic Woman ''The Bionic Woman'' is an American science fiction film, science fiction Action-adventure fiction, action-adventure television series created by Kenneth Johnson (producer), Kenneth Johnson based on the 1972 novel Cyborg (novel), ''Cyborg'' by ...

'', as well as ''

Run, Buddy, Run ''Run, Buddy, Run'' is an American sitcom TV series that aired on CBS for one season of 16 episodes in 1966-1967. The series was created by Leonard B. Stern, and starred jazz trumpeter, singer, and actor Jack Sheldon. Description At a steambath ...

''; '' He & She'' . His last television theme tune was for the 1970

situation comedy A sitcom (short for situation comedy or situational comedy) is a genre of comedy produced for radio and television, that centers on a recurring cast of character (arts), characters as they navigate humorous situations within a consistent settin ...

'' The Tim Conway Show''. He also did notable work with '' Kolchak: The Night Stalker'' (1974). His last television soundtrack, for the mini-series ''High Midnight'', won an

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

Personal life

Fielding married twice, first to

band production assistant, Ann Parks(d), in December 1946 in

Tijuana Tijuana is the most populous city of the Mexican state of Baja California, located on the northwestern Pacific Coast of Mexico. Tijuana is the municipal seat of the Tijuana Municipality, the hub of the Tijuana metropolitan area and the most popu ...

. They raised two children, Georgia and Hillary. This marriage ended in the spring of 1963. His second marriage took place on August 6, 1963, to Camille J. Williams, a Las Vegas dancer. They had two children.

Death

Fielding died, at the age of 57, from a

heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...

followed by

congestive heart failure Heart failure (HF), also known as congestive heart failure (CHF), is a syndrome caused by an impairment in the heart's ability to fill with and pump blood. Although symptoms vary based on which side of the heart is affected, HF typically pr ...

, while in

Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

where he was scoring the film ''

''. The film was released posthumously in October 1980. Fielding's remains are interred in Crypt 30 at Glen Haven Memorial Park in Los Angeles.The Jerry Fielding Papers 1950–1977
at

Brigham Young University Brigham Young University (BYU) is a Private education, private research university in Provo, Utah, United States. It was founded in 1875 by religious leader Brigham Young and is the flagship university of the Church Educational System sponsore ...

in the L. Tom Perry Special Collections.

Filmography

Television

Awards and honors

On November 12, 2009, Fielding was awarded a lifetime achievement award for his composition in ''The Wild Bunch'' which celebrated its 40th anniversary. It was received by his daughter Claudia Fielding.

References

Notes

External links

*
Demon Seed score on compact disc

Jerry Fielding, From the Bands to the Films – interview by Les Tomkins in 1974

Jerry Fielding, Speak the Truth - interview #2 by Les Tomkins in 1974

Jerry Fielding/Dan Carlin interview conducted by Jonathan Rosenbaum and Peter Lehman; Originally published in Wide Angle, vol. 4, no. 3, 1979

Film Discography from Soundtrack Collector

A portrait of Jerry Fielding ( in French)

Jerry Fielding papers, MSS 2116
at L. Tom Perry Special Collections, Harold B. Lee Library,

{{DEFAULTSORT:Fielding, Jerry 1922 births 1980 deaths 20th-century American composers 20th-century American Jews 20th-century American male musicians American conductors (music) American film score composers American jazz bandleaders American male conductors (music) American male film score composers American male jazz musicians American television composers American big band bandleaders Decca Records artists Hollywood blacklist Jazz musicians from Pittsburgh Kapp Records artists American male television composers Taylor Allderdice High School alumni Varèse Sarabande Records artists American people of Russian-Jewish descent