Walter Scharf

• Name — Walter Scharf • Born — 1 August 1910 • Birthplace — Manhattan, New York City, U.S. • Died — 24 February 2003 • Place of death — Brentwood, Los Angeles, California, U.S. • Genre — Film, TV, stage and radio • Occupation — * Film composer • conductor • arranger • musician • Instrument — Piano • Label — Jubilee Records

Born in Manhattan, he was the son of Yiddish theatre comic Bessie Zwerling. While in his 20s, he was one of the orchestrators for George Gershwin's Broadway musical Girl Crazy, became singer Helen Morgan's accompanist, and later worked as pianist and arranger for singer Rudy Vallee.

Scharf composed music for dozens of television dramas including Ben Casey, The Man from U.N.C.L.E., Mission: Impossible, and the 1979 miniseries From Here to Eternity and Blind Ambition, although he became best known for his music for the National Geographic Society and The Undersea World of Jacques Cousteau documentaries, which he scored between 1965 and 1975. He received two Emmys for the Cousteau series, in 1970 and 1974, and composed an original symphonic work, The Legend of the Living Sea, for a Cousteau museum exhibit aboard the in 1971.

Scharf's initial work for the concert hall was The Palestine Suite, written in 1945 and performed at the Hollywood Bowl under Leopold Stokowski. After retiring from films and TV in the 1980s, he returned to concert writing, notably with The Tree Still Stands: A Symphonic Portrait of the Stages of a Hebraic Man, commissioned by the Stephen S. Wise Temple and first performed in 1989, and the 1993 Israeli Suite. He also wrote an unproduced opera based on Norman Corwin's The Plot to Overthrow Christmas. Scharf died of heart failure at his home in the Brentwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, at the age of 92.

• Josette (1938) • Hit Parade of 1941 (1940) • Thumbs Up (1943) • Someone to Remember (1943) • In Old Oklahoma (1943) • The Fighting Seabees (1944) • The Lady and the Monster • Atlantic City (1944) • Lake Placid Serenade (1944) • Earl Carroll Vanities (1945) • The Cheaters (1945) • Mexicana (1945) • Dakota (1945) • I've Always Loved You (1946) • Casbah (1948) • The Saxon Charm (1948) • City Across the River (1949) • Red Canyon (1949) • Take One False Step (1949) • Yes Sir, That's My Baby (1949) • Buccaneer's Girl (1950) • Sierra (1950) • South Sea Sinner (1950) • Deported (1950) • The Court Jester (1955) • Time Table (1956) • Three Violent People (1957) • The Joker Is Wild (1957) • The Geisha Boy (1958) • Don't Give Up the Ship (1959) • The Bellboy (1960) • Cinderfella (1960) • Pocketful of Miracles (1961) • The Ladies Man (1961) • The Errand Boy (1961) • Harold Lloyd's World of Comedy (1962) • It's Only Money (1962) • My Six Loves (1963) • The Nutty Professor (1963) • Honeymoon Hotel (1964) • Where Love Has Gone (1964) • Funny Girl (1968) • Pendulum (1969) • If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium (1969) • The Cheyenne Social Club (1970) • Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory (1971) • Ben (1972) • Walking Tall (1973) • Walking Tall Part 2 (1975) • Walking Tall: Final Chapter (1977) • When Every Day Was the Fourth of July (1978) • The Triangle Factory Fire Scandal (1979) • The Scarlett O'Hara War (1980) • Twilight Time (1982)

Walter Scharf is recorded as having received Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song.