Alex North

He came from theatre and dance in New York, where he worked with Elia Kazan. Kazan brought him into film with A Streetcar Named Desire, one of the first Hollywood scores built on jazz. He went on to Spartacus for Stanley Kubrick and Cleopatra. He was nominated fifteen times without winning, and in 1986 the Academy gave him the first honorary Oscar ever awarded to a composer.

Style

Jazz and modern dissonance within the orchestra, with very intimate love themes.

Awards

Honorary Oscar (1986), the first for a composer. 15 nominations.

Discography

• A Streetcar Named Desire (1951) Spotify
• Pony Soldier (1952) Spotify
• Désirée (1954) Spotify
• I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955) Spotify · Apple Music
• The King and Four Queens (1956) Spotify
• The Sound and the Fury (1959) Spotify · Apple Music
• The Wonderful Country (1959) Spotify
• Spartacus (1960) Spotify
• The Misfits (1961) Spotify
• Cleopatra (1963) Spotify · Apple Music
• Cheyenne Autumn (1964) Spotify
• The Agony and the Ecstasy (1965) Spotify
• Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966) Spotify

"Spotify" and "Apple Music" open the album directly on each platform; if only Spotify appears, we have not yet been able to check that album on Apple Music. "Search Spotify" opens an album search for that title. If a link does not lead to the right album, write to [email protected]. "Album" marks the year of that album edition when it differs from the film's.

Listen

• Spartacus Love Theme · SpartacusSpotifyApple MusicYouTube
• A Streetcar Named Desire Main Title · A Streetcar Named DesireSpotifyApple MusicYouTube

Full biography on Wikipedia