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Alexander Courage

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Composer

The Resume

    (December 10, 1919-May 15, 2008)
    Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
    Composer, arranger and orchestrator, primarily for film and TV scores
    Frequently provided arrangements and orchestrations for Lionel Newman, Jerry Goldsmith and John Williams
    Composed scores for the films ‘Hot Rod Girl’ (1956), ‘Hot Rod Rumble’ (1957), ‘Tokyo After Dark’ (1959), ‘Follow the Boys’ (1963) and ‘Superman IV: The Quest for Peace’ (1987)
    Scored episodes of the TV series ‘National Velvet,’ ‘Daniel Boone,’ ‘Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea,’ ‘Lost in Space,’ ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Peyton Place’ and The Waltons
    Best known for composing the title theme for Star Trek

Why he might be annoying:

    Two of his three marriages ended in divorce.
    He got to compose the ‘Star Trek’ theme only because Jerry Goldsmith turned down the job.
    He said he was no fan of science fiction, commenting ‘I think it’s just marvelous malarkey. So you write some, you hope, marvelous malarkey music that goes with it.’

Why he might not be annoying:

    He won an Emmy for his music direction on the special ‘Julie Andrews: The Sound of Christmas.’ (1988)
    He was also an award-winning photographer, whose pictures appeared in ‘Life’ and ‘Colliers.’
    Gene Roddenberry tacked on some cheesy lyrics (‘Beyond the rim of star-light/My love is wand’ring in a star flight’) to his ‘Star Trek’ theme that were never used but did let Roddenberry claim 50% of the royalties as a co-writer.
    He said about the ‘Star Trek’ theme, ‘Little did I know, when I wrote that first A-flat for the flute, that it was going to go down in history, somehow. It’s a very strange feeling.’

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 8 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 11 Votes: 90.91% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 6 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 19 Votes: 42.11% Annoying