Lalo Schifrin, composer who wrote Mission: Impossible theme, dies aged 93
The multi award-winning composer is known for his large body of film and TV scores, including the Theme from Mission: Impossible, Bullitt and Enter the Dragon and for his collaborations with Clint Eastwood from the late 1960s to the 1980s, particularly the Dirty Harry films.
Lalo Schifrin, the Grammy-winning composer of the Mission: Impossible, theme, has died aged 93, of complications from pneumonia, Variety has reported.
The Argentine musician was also behind film scores including Cool Hand Luke, Dirty Harry and Bullitt.
He was considered one of the great film score composers of the 20th century as well as an accomplished jazz musician and the principal arranger for The Three Tenors concerts, according to RNZ's Music from the Movies.
Schifrin trained in both jazz and classical music. He began to play piano at the age of six, studying with Enrique Barenboim, the father of the famous pianist and conductor Daniel Barenboim. In 1932 Schifrin enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire, hitting the jazz clubs there by night.
In the 1950s he met the American jazz trumpeter and bandleader Dizzie Gillespie and went on to compose a number of works for Gillespie's quintet.
In 1960 he moved to New York to become Gillespie's musical director, leaving the group two years later to concentrate on composing. Lalo Schifrin accepted his first film-score project in 1963 - Rhino! - and relocated to Hollywood later that year.
Lalo Schifrin
Alexandra Spürk CC2.5
In 2016 Schifrin's Mission: Impossible theme was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame and in 2018 he received an honorary Oscar in recognition of his successful career.
