MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer Ron Goodwin died on January 8, 2003, at his home near Reading, England. He was 77. Earlier that evening he had completed conducting a series of Christmas concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and died in his sleep that night.

Ronald Alfred Goodwin was born in Plymouth, Devon, in February 1925, and raised in London . He studied trumpet and piano, eventually attending the Guildhall School of Music. After beginning his career in the 1940s as a music copyist and arranger for music publishers, he found early success orchestrating for dance bands and providing musical direction for celebrated vocalists such as Petula Clark and Jimmy Young, including the orchestration of Young’s hit “Too Young”.

Goodwin made his feature film debut in 1958 with Whirlpool, but it was in the following decade that he rose to prominence as a film composer. He became best known for his dynamic music for war and adventure films, notably 633 Squadron (1964), Where Eagles Dare (1968), and Battle of Britain (1969). His score for 633 Squadron, with its soaring main theme and martial energy, became a classic of the genre and remains one of his most widely recognized works, especially in the UK.

Goodwin composed more than 70 film scores over a career that spanned five decades. His music, often marked by bold brass, stirring rhythms, and a keen sense of drama, brought energy and grandeur to a wide range of films, from light comedies to thrillers and epic historical dramas. He wrote whimsical music for the Miss Marple mysteries starring Margaret Rutherford and created eerie, minimalist textures for Village of the Damned (1960) and its sequel, Children of the Damned (1964). In 1972, Alfred Hitchcock selected Goodwin to score Frenzy, marking one of the composer’s few Hollywood collaborations. His other acclaimed scores include Operation Crossbow (1965), and The Trap (1966), the theme from which was adopted by the BBC for their coverage of the London Marathon in 1981.

Outside the film world, Goodwin recorded extensively with his own Ron Goodwin Concert Orchestra and conducted internationally with both professional and youth ensembles. He received an Ivor Novello Award for lifetime achievement in 1994 and continued conducting until shortly before his death. Goodwin is survived by his wife, Heather, and his son, Christopher.