Cleveland, 1924 · Beverly Hills, 1994
Henry Mancini
Moon River and The Pink Panther: four Oscars and twenty Grammys with tunes you hum without meaning to.
The son of Italian immigrants, he played and arranged for the Glenn Miller orchestra after the war. He joined Universal writing stock music, and the series Peter Gunn, with its insistent bass-line jazz, made his name. With Blake Edwards he made more than twenty films, from Breakfast at Tiffany's to Victor/Victoria.
- Style
- Big band jazz, flutes and vibraphone, and songs built to live on outside the film.
- Awards
- 4 Oscars: score and song (Moon River) for Breakfast at Tiffany's, the song from Days of Wine and Roses and the song score of Victor/Victoria. 20 Grammys.
Essential films
- Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)
- Hatari! (1962)
- Days of Wine and Roses (1962)
- Charade (1963)
- The Pink Panther (1963)
- Victor/Victoria (1982)
Listen
- Moon River · Breakfast at Tiffany'sSpotifyYouTube
- The Pink Panther Theme · The Pink PantherSpotifyYouTube
- Baby Elephant Walk · Hatari!SpotifyYouTube
Everything on Spotify Everything on YouTube Full biography on Wikipedia
Awards counted up to the 2026 Academy Awards. Facts reviewed in October 2026.