COMPOSER · BORN 1911 · DIED 1975
Bernard Herrmann
- Born
- 29 June 1911
- Died
- 24 December 1975
- Known for
- Taxi Driver (1976)
13 archived facts 4 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
Bernard Herrmann (29 June 1911 – 24 December 1975) was a director best known for Taxi Driver.
13 Interesting Facts About Bernard Herrmann
Interesting Facts (9)
- #001
Alfred Hitchcock was so pleased with Bernard Herrmann's score for Psycho (1960) that he doubled his contracted fee.
- #002
He was composer Danny Elfman's number one inspiration and role model.
- #003
He considered The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) his favorite among his own film scores. Some of the main thematic material in the music had appeared in Herrmann's only opera, "Wuthering Heights."
- #004
Among his early radio work, he also provided the music for Orson Welles's notorious "War of the Worlds" broadcast.
- #005
He was to have scored Brian De Palma's Carrie (1976), but because he died just before post-production began, the job was taken over by Pino Donaggio.
- #006
He was the head of CBS Radio's "Crime Classics" (1953-1954).
- #007
He is depicted on one of six 33¢ U.S. commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, issued on September 21, 1999, in memory of Hollywood composers. They were printed in sheets of 20 stamps. Other award-winning figures in the set included Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Alfred Newman and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.
- #008
In his series 20th Century Greats (2004), British composer and presenter Howard Goodall argued that Herrmann was one of the four most important composers of the 20th century, alongside Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter and the Lennon (John Lennon)\McCartney (Paul McCartney) songwriting partnership.
- #009
Herrmann was buried in Section BB2 of Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York, at the intersection of Beth Israel and Washington Avenues.
Characters & Cast (1)
- #010
The last film he watched was Larry Cohen's God Told Me To (1976). Herrmann had been Cohen's first choice to score the film because of his work on It's Alive (1974), but he died in his sleep that night, hours after being shown the film. The film was dedicated to Herrmann in his honor.
Career & Awards (2)
- #011
None of the scores Herrmann wrote for Alfred Hitchcock earned him an Oscar nomination. However, his music for Psycho (1960) and Vertigo (1958) ranked 4th and 12th on the American Film Institute's list of the 25 greatest American film scores.
- #012
When Bernard Herrmann arrived in Hollywood, his natural talent for film scoring was immediately recognized. His first two films, "Citizen Kane" (1941) and "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1941), earned him Oscar nominations, and he won the award for the latter. It was the beginning of a stormy relationship with the film industry. Herrmann refused to be tied to long-term contracts and worked film by film, unusual among film composers of the time; he insisted on doing his own orchestrations and introduced instruments and techniques new to Tinseltown scores, such as the electronic effects in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951). However, Herrmann's abrasive personality and explosive, irrational temper alienated his friends and made him many enemies in the industry, who retaliated through the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. After 1941 he received only one Oscar nomination in his lifetime, for "Anna and the King of Siam" (1946); much of his best work, including all of his films with Alfred Hitchcock, was overlooked. After Herrmann's death in December 1975, the Academy nominated him posthumously for his last two films, "Obsession" (1976) and "Taxi Driver" (1976).
Life & Family (1)
- #013
Dorothy Herrmann is his daughter with Lucille Fletcher.
Related pages
- Minions & Monsters — Bernard Herrmann comes up in the facts on that page
- The Birds — Bernard Herrmann comes up in the facts on that page
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
- Wikipedia
- IMDb
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