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Joel Goldsmith, 1957-2012
Composer Joel Goldsmith died at his home in Hidden Hills, California, on April 29, 2012, at the age of 54, following a long battle with cancer.
The son of legendary film composer Jerry Goldsmith, he established a substantial career of his own in film, television and video games, becoming particularly associated with science fiction and fantasy. His most enduring achievement was his music for the Stargate television franchise, which occupied him for more than a decade and earned him three Emmy Award nominations.
Joel King Goldsmith was born in Los Angeles on November 19, 1957. Growing up around his father’s work gave him an unusually early introduction to film scoring, and as a teenager he became fascinated by synthesizers and electronic music. He sometimes assisted Jerry with electronic elements on scores during the 1970s, and later contributed to his father’s pioneering all-electronic score for Runaway (1984). Joel’s own professional career began in 1978 when he worked with Richard Band on the low-budget science-fiction film Laserblast, while his first solo feature assignment was Ulli Lommel’s Olivia in 1981.
Much of Goldsmith’s early work embraced electronics, although he gradually developed a muscular orchestral style inevitably influenced by his father. Roland Emmerich’s science-fiction thriller Moon 44 (1990) became an important early symphonic assignment, followed by films including Maniac Cop III: Badge of Silence (1992), Joshua Tree (1993), Man’s Best Friend (1993) and Kull the Conqueror (1997). The latter gave Goldsmith an opportunity to write on a broad fantasy-adventure scale, combining large orchestral forces, vigorous action writing and electronic textures.
DIAMONDS – Joel Goldsmith
Original Review by Jonathan Broxton
I would imagine that being constantly overshadowed by a more famous relative cannot be an easy thing with which to cope. When you are an aspiring film composer named Joel Goldsmith, and when your father is none other than the near-legendary film music composer Jerry Goldsmith, I would imagine the difficulties increase tenfold. Joel, of course, has been around for twenty years or more, initially doing sound design work for the film industry, before graduating to scoring motion pictures such as Moon 44, Shiloh and Kull the Conqueror. His latest score is, ironically, for a film starring another famous father of a famous son – Diamonds, with Kirk Douglas in his first major film role since suffering a stroke several years ago. Read more…
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