Film Music Reporter

Johnny Mandel has passed away at 94. The Grammy Award-winning composer wrote numerous scores and songs for film and TV between the late 50s and early 90s and was also known for writing and arranging other popular songs. Among his best known film scoring credits are Robert Altman’s 1970 classic MASH (for which he also wrote the theme song Suicide Is Painless), Harold Ramis’ 1980 comedy Caddyshack, Hal Ashby’s comedy dramas Being There and The Last Detail, Disney’s original Freaky Friday and Escape to Witch Mountain movies, Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict and Death Trap, John Boorman’s 1967 thriller Point Blank, Michael Apted’s 1979 thriller Agatha and Jack Smight’s 1966 crime drama Harper. He won the Academy Award for co-writing the original song The Shadow of Your Smile from 1965’s The Sandpiper with Paul Francis Webster and received another Oscar nomination for the song A Time for Love from 1966’s An American Dream (also featuring lyrics by Webster). He received two Golden Globe nominations for the song and score from The Sandpiper and was honored with another Golden Globe nomination for the song Take Me Home from 1972’s Molly and Lawless John (with lyrics by Alan & Marilyn Bergman). Among his television scoring credits are the TV movies A Letter to Three Wives, LBJ: The Early Years and Foxfire, for all of which he earned Primetime Emmy Awards nominations, as well as numerous episodes of the MASH TV series and an episode of Amazing Stories.