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Remembering Miles Goodman, 1948-1996
Composer, arranger and record producer Miles Goodman died in Santa Monica, California, ten years ago today, on August 16, 1996, after suffering a heart attack at his Brentwood home. He was 47.
During a career cut short at its peak, Goodman became particularly associated with comedy, scoring films including Teen Wolf, About Last Night…, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, What About Bob? and The Muppet Christmas Carol, while his work on Little Shop of Horrors earned him a Golden Globe nomination.
Elliot Miles Goodman was born in Los Angeles on August 27, 1948. He graduated from Antioch College in Ohio with a degree in English and initially planned to become a director, also studying Shakespeare in London. His cousin, Oscar-winning composer Johnny Mandel, encouraged him to pursue film music instead, and Goodman returned to Los Angeles to study composition and scoring privately with teachers including Albert Harris.
His early career included television and low-budget films, but Mandel also provided valuable practical experience. Goodman orchestrated portions of Being There (1979) and worked with his cousin on Sidney Lumet’s The Verdict (1982), absorbing the sophisticated jazz harmonies and understated dramatic approach that would remain evident in much of his own music. By the mid-1980s he was receiving increasingly prominent feature assignments, including the Michael J. Fox comedy Teen Wolf (1985) and Edward Zwick’s romantic comedy-drama About Last Night… (1986). Read more…
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