MOVIE MUSIC UK

Composer Alf Clausen died on May 29, 2025, at his home in Los Angeles at the age of 84. He had been suffering from Parkinson’s disease since at least 2017.

Alfred Faye Heiberg Clausen was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, in March 1941, and grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota. He learned piano and French horn as a child, and later studied music at North Texas State University and at Berklee College of Music in Boston. Clausen moved to Hollywood in 1967 in search of television work, wanting to become a full-time composer, and soon found himself working as a music director on shows as diverse as The Partridge Family, Donny & Marie, and The Mary Tyler Moore Hour.

Throughout the 1980s Clausen was a prolific television composer, scoring 62 episodes of Moonlighting between 1985 and 1989, and scoring 96 episodes of Alf between 1986 and 2004, while also working as a film orchestrator for composers such as Ira Newborn (Weird Science, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Dragnet, The Naked Gun) and Lee Holdridge (The Beastmaster, Splash).

Clausen’s career took a defining turn in 1990, when he was hired as the principal composer for the massively successful animated sitcom The Simpsons, beginning with its second season. Over the next 27 years, he wrote original music for more than 560 episodes, contributing an eclectic blend of parody, pastiche, and heartfelt orchestration that became a hallmark of the show’s identity. His work earned him two Primetime Emmy Awards – for the songs “We Put The Spring In Springfield” in 1997 and “You’re Checkin’ In” in 1998 – and over 21 nominations, which when combined with the six Emmy nominations he earned for Moonlighting made him one of the most nominated composers in television history.

Clausen’s dismissal from The Simpsons in 2017 sparked controversy due to both the abruptness of the decision and what it seemed to represent about changing industry values. Clausen was reportedly let go because the producers were seeking “a different kind of music,” but critics and fans viewed the move as a cost-cutting decision, especially since Clausen’s orchestral scores were labor-intensive and expensive compared to synthesized or library music. Many in the entertainment community felt it signaled a troubling shift away from craftsmanship and long-standing creative collaboration in favor of budget efficiency. Clausen, then 76, also filed a wrongful termination suit in 2019 alleging age and disability discrimination, claiming he was fired after disclosing his Parkinson’s diagnosis. The case was settled confidentially in 2022.

He is survived by his wife, Peggy, and two children, including composer Scott Clausen.