Hollywood loses its go-to pianist

Many are mourning the death of Mike Lang, who played piano and other keyboards on 2,500 films and TV series. Lang was 80, and suffering from lung cancer.

You can hear him working for John Williams (“Close Encounters of the Third Kind,” “Catch Me If You Can”), Jerry Goldsmith (“Gremlins,” “The Russia House”), John Barry (“Body Heat,” “The Specialist”), Henry Mancini (“10”), Alex North (“The Shoes of the Fisherman”), Elmer Bernstein (“The Rainmaker”), Miklós Rózsa (“Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid”) and so many more.

He also recorded albums with Barbra Streisand, Barry Manilow, Aretha Franklin, Franz Zappa, Russell Watson and Michael Bolton.

Obituary here.

Not to be confused with any other brand of Lang.