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John Harry Cacavas (August 13, 1930 – January 28, 2014) was an American

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

and conductor probably best known for his

television Television (TV) is a telecommunication medium for transmitting moving images and sound. Additionally, the term can refer to a physical television set rather than the medium of transmission. Television is a mass medium for advertising, ...

scores, such as '' Kojak'', and ''

The Time Machine ''The Time Machine'' is an 1895 dystopian post-apocalyptic science fiction novella by H. G. Wells about a Victorian scientist known as the Time Traveller who travels to the year 802,701. The work is generally credited with the popularizati ...

,'' for which he was the chief composer. He also composed '' Kojak's'' second main title theme for its 5th and final season in 1977-1978.

Early life and education

Cacavas was born in Aberdeen, South Dakota in 1930. His father was an emigrant from

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and his mother was born in North Dakota. He had a fraternal twin sister, Jeanne, and three other siblings: Peter David, b. 1928; Penelope, b. 1932; and Adrian G., 1933. Their father's younger brother Chris had also immigrated to South Dakota and lived in Aberdeen, where he married and had a family. John and his siblings attended local schools; he displayed an early talent for music, forming a local band at age 14, at 16 he started a school dance band named “The Golden Blues," he left after having a falling out with his band teacher after which he quit all school band activities. He studied musical composition at

Northwestern University Northwestern University (NU) is a Private university, private research university in Evanston, Illinois, United States. Established in 1851 to serve the historic Northwest Territory, it is the oldest University charter, chartered university in ...

. During service in the military, Cacavas was assigned to Washington, DC where he was an arranger for the United States Army Band.Harris M. Lentz III, ''Obituaries in the Performing Arts, 2014''
McFarland, 2015, pp. 57-58 There he met Charles Osgood, with whom he collaborated on musical compositions and recordings. Osgood later became a radio and TV commentator.

Career

After studying music, in the 1960s Cacavas and Osgood collaborated, including on US Senator Everett Dirksen's recording of ''Gallant Men,'' which won a

Grammy Award The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious ...

for a spoken word performance.}{{Circular reference, date=May 2025} While working in London in the 1970s, Cacavas met actor Telly Savalas, who later helped him move into working on movie scores. Cacavas scored Savalas's 1972 cult horror film '' Horror Express'', and he moved to Hollywood, where he began to compose scores for television series and movies produced for TV. His most noted scores were written for the series '' Kojak'' (1973-1978), for which he was the chief composer. For its 5th and final season in 1977-1978, Cacavas composed the show's second main title theme. His television credits are extensive, including scoring the series '' Hawaii Five-O'', '' The Bionic Woman'', '' Mrs. Columbo'', '' The Eddie Capra Mysteries'', and '' Buck Rogers in the 25th Century'', as well as television movies, such as '' The Elevator'' (1974), '' Friendly Persuasion'' (1975), '' Murder at the World Series'' (1977), '' SST: Death Flight'' (1977), '' Superdome'' (1978), ''

'' (1978) and the 1982 film '' The Executioner's Song'', starring Tommy Lee Jones. Scoring music for the 1981 television movie ''Hellinger's Law'' reunited him with ''Kojak'' veteran and friend Telly Savalas, and Cacavas also went on to score Savalas's made for TV ''Dirty Dozen'' sequel movies '' The Dirty Dozen: The Deadly Mission'' (1987) and '' The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission'' (1988). His later television work included popular miniseries such as '' Jenny's War'' (1985), '' Confessional'' (1989) and '' Perfect Murder, Perfect Town'' in 2000. While Cacavas has extensive credits in television he has comparatively few credits for

film score A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film. The score comprises a number of orchestral, instrumental, or choral pieces called cues, which are timed to begin and end at specific points during the film in order to ...

s. His most notable works in film are two entries in the ''Airport'' series: '' Airport 1975'' and ''

Airport '77 ''Airport '77'' is a 1977 American air disaster film, the third installment of the ''Airport'' film series. The film stars an ensemble cast of veteran actors including Jack Lemmon, James Stewart, Joseph Cotten, Olivia de Havilland, and Br ...

''. As well as '' Horror Express'' he also composed the score for the

Hammer A hammer is a tool, most often a hand tool, consisting of a weighted "head" fixed to a long handle that is swung to deliver an impact to a small area of an object. This can be, for example, to drive nail (fastener), nails into wood, to sh ...

film '' The Satanic Rites of Dracula'' (1973), which also starred Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing, and his other scores included '' Hangar 18'' (1980), '' Gangster Wars'' (1981), '' Mortuary'' (1983), and '' They're Playing with Fire'' (1984). Cacavas is also notable for his "Flute Poem", known by

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

viewers as the opening to '' Hinterland Who's Who'', a series of public service announcements profiling various wild Canadian animals.Hinterland Who's Who: Profile
/ref> John Cacavas also composed and arranged many music scores for school bands and music students. There are many of his arrangements and compositions listed by music publishing houses such as Hal Leonard Corporation and Alfred Music Publishers. In his later years, Cacavas wrote and published his

autobiography An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

, entitled ''It's More than Do-Re-Mi: My Life in Music'' (2004). He lived in Beverly Hills, California and London, UK, with his wife, Bonetta Becker Cacavas. Among his pleasures was cooking and he was an accomplished chef. They had three children, Lisa, John and Jennifer, and three grandchildren, James Stewart, Eric and Alexander Cacavas.

References

{{reflist

External links

JohnCacavas.com (official website)
*{{IMDb name, id=0005990, name=John Cacavas
Home Page of John and Stine Cacavas
{{Authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Cacavas, John 1930 births 2014 deaths People from Aberdeen, South Dakota Musicians from South Dakota American film score composers American people of Greek descent Place of death missing American male film score composers American television composers