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Henry Mancini became a household name in the 1960s for his film and television scores. He was nominated for 72 Grammys and won 10 of them. He also won four Oscars and the Golden Globe Award.

Growing up in Pennsylvania Mancini learned flute from his father and studied with the great Max Adkins. His studies at Juilliard were interrupted by WWII, but after his service he joined Tex Beneke’s band as pianist and arranger. He then settled in Los Angeles where he freelanced and eventually joined the Universal-International film staff as an arranger, working on both The Glenn Miller Story (1954) and The Benny Goodman Story (1956). His score for Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958), on which he included jazz musicians with the studio orchestra, caught the attention of producer Blake Edwards who hired him to score the TV series Peter Gunn for an 11-piece jazz group. The popularity of the soundtrack was phenomenal and won Mancini his first Grammy. He followed that with the equally successful soundtrack for Mr. Lucky (1959), a TV series based on the 1943 Cary Grant film.

The Edwards/Mancini partnership seemed to be made in heaven, and they followed up their success with the 1961 film Breakfast at Tiffany’s and 1962’s The Days of Wine and Roses. “Moon River” from the first film and the title cut of the second, both with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, won Oscars. The Pink Panther (1963) was a huge success and spawned sequels and a cartoon series using Mancini’s theme. Mancini worked with other directors on films such as Hatari! (1962), Charade (1963), Two for the Road, and Arabesque (1966), and he scored the 1983 TV mini-series The Thorn Birds.

Mancini record over 50 albums, conducted many concerts each year, established several music scholarships, was given four honorary degrees, wrote his autobiography, and appeared on a U. S. postage stamp in 2004.

- Sandra Burlingame