Vienna, 1888 · Los Angeles, 1971
Max Steiner
King Kong, Gone with the Wind and Casablanca: the man who set the sound of classic Hollywood.
A child prodigy in Vienna, he was conducting operettas as a teenager. He reached Broadway in 1914 and Hollywood with the coming of sound. King Kong (1933) proved that a symphonic score could carry an entire film. He spent nearly three decades at Warner Bros. and wrote more than two hundred scores.
- Style
- Viennese romantic orchestra, a theme for each character and music that follows every move on screen.
- Awards
- 3 Oscars: The Informer, Now, Voyager and Since You Went Away. 24 nominations according to most sources.
Essential films
- King Kong (1933)
- The Informer (1935)
- Gone with the Wind (1939)
- Casablanca (1942)
- Now, Voyager (1942)
- The Searchers (1956)
Listen
- Tara's Theme · Gone with the WindSpotifyYouTube
- King Kong Main Title · King KongSpotifyYouTube
- Casablanca Main Title · CasablancaSpotifyYouTube
Everything on Spotify Everything on YouTube Full biography on Wikipedia
Awards counted up to the 2026 Academy Awards. Facts reviewed in October 2026.