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Miklos Rozsa

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Composer

The Resume

    (April 18, 1907-July 27, 1995)
    Born in Budapest, Hungary
    Composed scores for over 100 films
    Nominated for Oscars for 'The Thief of Baghdad' (1940), 'Sundown' (1941), 'Lydia' (1941), 'The Jungle Book' (1942), 'The Woman of the Town' (1944), 'Double Indemnity' (1944), 'A Song to Remember' (1945), 'The Lost Weekend' (1945), 'Spellbound' (1945), 'The Killers' (1946), 'A Double Life' (1947), 'Quo Vadis' (1951), 'Ivanhoe' (1952), 'Julius Caesar' (1953), 'Ben Hur' (1959), and 'El Cid' (1961)
    Classical compositions include 'Variations on a Hungarian Peasant Song' and 'Hungarian Serenade'
    Naturalized US citizen (1946)

Why he might be annoying:

    He disliked his first symphony so much that he would not let it be performed until 1993, more than 60 years after he wrote it.
    Before being commissioned to write film scores, he supported himself by composing light music under the pseudonym Nic Tornay.
    He said, ' I bought one German and one Russian book on the technique of film music and everything I learned from these books was absolutely wrong!'
    After using a theremin to great effect in 'The Lost Weekend' and 'Spellbound,' he abandoned it, worrying about musical stereotyping.

Why he might not be annoying:

    He could read music before reading words.
    He negotiated a clause in his contract with MGM that gave him three months off each year to concentrate on classical music and conducting.
    His score for 'The Jungle Book' (with narration by star Sabu) was the first film score released commercially by a major record company.
    He won Oscars for 'Spellbound,' 'A Double Life,' and 'Ben Hur.'
    He taught film scoring at USC, where one of his students was Jerry Goldsmith.

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 3 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 17 Votes: 41.18% Annoying