Date of Birth
19 August 1915,
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Date of Death
15 March 2007, Los Angeles, California, USA (congestive heart failure)
Mini Biography
Composer, arranger and pianist, he was a child prodigy who was already a keyboard artist at three and a concert performer at six. A self-taught orchestrator, he learned musical theory in the local public library, and soon was arranging music for popular bandleaders including Count Basie and Fred Waring. Coming to Hollywood in 1948, he studied composition theory with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, and by 1951 he was on the staff of the Universal-International music department, where he remained until the end of that decade, composing themes and scores for U-I's steady output of youth-oriented monster and horror films, a genre he often effaced. Later, at the beginning of the 1960s, he concentrated on television music, until retiring in the mid-1960s.
Spouse
| Anita Shervin Stein |
(1950 - 2001) (her death) |
Trivia
Herman Stein wrote a clever composition for public performance for small orchestra, "The Sour Suite", in 1967.
Herman Stein has a terrific sense of humor, and could have been a comedy writer if he wasn't too busy with musical notes.
Herman Stein was a jazz composer and arranger in the 1940s before becoming a film music composer, working with jazz musician Billy Eckstine.
Two of his best friends were scriptwriter Charles Beaumont, and famous TV producer-writer Rod Serling. The three of them often got together to enjoy jazz music at Hollywood nightclubs.
His wife was a violist with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Music Branch).
Personal Quotes
"Marriage is a punishment which fits no crime!"

Herman Stein and one of the many ...

Herman Stein’s “Sour Suite” for ...