Star Trek composer dies
RIPThe East Coast composer Gerald Fried has died in Connecticut.
He started working on NBC’s Star Trek in mid-first season and made an indelible mark on the second-season opener, ‘Amok Time.’
He had previously scored Stanley Kubrick’s first four films: Fear and Desire (1953), Killer’s Kiss (1955), The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957).
Fried started out in 1948 as a woodwind player in the Dallas Symphony.
Obituary here.
What a rich musical life well lived to the end. Quite a fascinating obituary for a musician.
Age was 95 according to the obituary, not 88.
For many of my generation Fried will always be known for writing the music for the goofy show GIlligan’s Island. RIP.
I think of Fried most fondly as composer of a couple of fine scores for 1950s Grade B horror flicks: “The Return of Dracula” (great use of the Dies irae), and “I Bury the Living” (sample the opening — dig the creepy harpsichord part, and the segue into “Hey Ho, Nobody Home” — so appropriate for a graveyard):
https://youtu.be/jMwfhCT8CSE