Herschel Burke Gilbert
Herschel Burke Gilbert (April 20, 1918 – June 8, 2003) was an American orchestrator, musical supervisor, and composer of film and television scores and theme songs, including The Rifleman (starring Chuck Connors), Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, and The Detectives. Gilbert once estimated that his compositions had been used in at least three thousand individual episodes of various television series.
Herschel Burke Gilbert
- Name
- Herschel Burke Gilbert
- Born
- 20 April 1918
- Birthplace
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US
- Died
- 8 June 2003
- Place of death
- Los Angeles, California, US
- Spouse
- Trudy Gilbert
- Education
- * University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee
- Nationality
- United States
- Occupation
- composer · musician · conductor
VALÉORINE Encyclopedia
VALÉORINE documentary reading
Documentary summary
Herschel Burke Gilbert (April 20, 1918 – June 8, 2003) was an American orchestrator, musical supervisor, and composer of film and television scores and theme songs, including The Rifleman (starring Chuck Connors), Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater, and The Detectives. Gilbert once estimated that his compositions had been used in at least three thousand individual episodes of various television series.
Admitted source layer · organised and presented by VALÉORINE
Reference Check
Propose documentary evidence for Herschel Burke Gilbert. A contribution is never written directly as fact: identity, source, rights and evidence gates still decide.
Sign in to contribute
World of VALÉORINE
Documentary connections
Only confirmed graph relationships appear here. Images are shown only when their identity and reuse rights both pass the documentary gate.
Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
wikidata · Q1598922 · wikipedia · Herschel Burke Gilbert
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Herschel Burke Gilbert • Born — 20 April 1918 • Birthplace — Milwaukee, Wisconsin, US • Died — 8 June 2003 • Place of death — Los Angeles, California, US • Spouse — Trudy Gilbert • Children — 4 • Education — * University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee • Juilliard School of Music
Early years and education
Early years and education
Gilbert was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, to Samuel Gilbert and Bertha Shevinsky, both born in the Russian Empire. At the age of nine, he began studying the violin in Shorewood in Milwaukee County. By the time he was 15, he had formed his own dance band. He attended Milwaukee State Teachers College (now University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee) and studied for four years: two as an undergraduate and two as a graduate, from 1939 to 1943 at the Juilliard School of Music in New York City. After Juilliard, Gilbert won a music scholarship to the Berkshire Music Festival in Massachusetts, where he studied under Aaron Copland and Leonard Bernstein. He also played the viola with bandleader Harry James.
Later years
Later years
Gilbert died in Los Angeles from complications of a stroke.
Identity
Identity
Herschel Burke Gilbert is recorded with the occupation film score composer. Recorded as composer, musician and conductor.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
2003
Herschel Burke Gilbert died at Los Angeles.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Milwaukee.
Birth place
Los Angeles.
Death place
Activity and practice
Herschel Burke Gilbert is recorded as having studied at University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, Juilliard School and Wisconsin State College of Milwaukee.
Television and film scoring
He composed many instrumental theme songs heard on American television through the 1950s and 1960s, including The Rifleman, Michael Shayne, The Lawless Years, Wanted: Dead or Alive, Stories of the Century, The Dick Powell Show, Four Star Playhouse, The DuPont Show with June Allyson, The Detectives Starring Robert Taylor, The Westerner, Mrs. G. Goes to College, Law of the Plainsman, Target: The Corruptors!, Man with a Camera, and Burke's Law. Many of these were TV series produced by Four Star Television when Gilbert was a music director. In addition to the main theme songs, Gilbert also composed library music cues used in many TV series episodes, including episodes of Gunsmoke, The Big Valley, The Adventures of Superman, Leave It to Beaver, Johnny Ringo, Harrigan and Son, McKeever and the Colonel, Gilligan's Island and Perry Mason. During his library music years, he formed a publishing company named for his sons "John Paul Music" to collect ASCAP publisher royalties. His film work includes It's a Wonderful Life (1947), The Jackie Robinson Story (1950), The Thief (1952), Carmen Jones (1954), It Came from Beneath the Sea (1954), Beyond a Reasonable Doubt (1956), No Place to Hide (1956), Comanche (1956), Slaughter On Tenth Avenue (1957), Sam Whiskey (1969), I Dismember Mama (1974), and The Witch Who Came from the Sea (1976).
Primary material
Documents and archives
authority record
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q1598922: Herschel Burke Gilbert
General reference · Wikidata
reference work
- “Herschel Burke Gilbert”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority record
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Music memorabilia
42,934 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Hernando de CabezónPerson
- Hernando FrancoPerson
- Herodes FalskPerson
- Hersal ThomasPerson
- Herschel EvansPerson
- Herschel GarfeinPerson
- Herta GlazPerson
- Herta MayenPerson
Best supported in this field
For owners
Own a work by Herschel Burke Gilbert?
A specialist will read what you send and tell you what the house can establish, what it cannot, and whether the object is suited to sale. There is no charge and no obligation. The object stays with you throughout; nothing is shipped to us unless it is arranged in writing beforehand.