Leigh Harline

Leigh Adrian Harline was an American Academy Award-winning film composer and songwriter. He was known for his "musical sophistication that was uniquely "Harline-esque" by weaving rich tapestries of mood-setting underscores and penning memorable melodies for animated shorts and features."
==Biography==
Leigh Harline was the youngest of 13 children. His parents, soldier Charles Härlin and his wife, Johanna Matilda, came from the village of Härfsta in Simtuna parish, Sweden. They joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) in 1888 and moved to Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1891. In the U.S., they changed their surname to Harline. Born in Salt Lake City, Leigh was baptized as a member of the LDS Church at age eight.
Harline graduated from the University of Utah and studied piano and organ with Mormon Tabernacle Choir conductor J. Spencer Cornwall. In 1928, he moved to California working at radio stations in San Francisco and Los Angeles as a composer, conductor, arranger, instrumentalist, singer, and announcer. In 1931, he provided music for the first transcontinental radio broadcast to originate from the West Coast. He was then hired by Walt Disney where he scored more than 50 tunes, including for the Silly Symphonies cartoon series in the 1930s.
Together with Frank Churchill, Larry Morey, and Paul J. Smith, Harline was responsible for Disney film tunes, such as "I'm Wishing", "Whistle While You Work", "Heigh-Ho", and "Some Day My Prince Will Come", in Disney's first animated feature-length film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs in 1937.
He won the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Song for "When You Wish Upon a Star," featured in Disney's Pinocchio (1940) alongside Smith and Ned Washington. The tune later became the theme for Disney's TV series The Wonderful World of Disney.
Harline left Disney in 1941 to compose for other studios. His credits included Road to Utopia (1945), Nocturne (1946), The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), The Boy with Green Hair (1948), Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), Monkey Business (1952), The Desert Rats (1953) Good Morning, Miss Dove (1955), 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956), Ten North Frederick (1958), The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964).
He died from complications of throat cancer on December 10, 1969, in Long Beach, California, and is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery. In 2001, he was posthumously honored as a Disney Legend.
==Gallery==
File:L.A.H..jpg|Birth Certificate.
Leigh harline at work.jpg|Harline playing the piano near a moviola
File:Leigh Hairline.png|Hairline as a young man.
==Sources==
*A Century of Animation (includes photo)
*Disney Legends
*LDS Film Composers
==External links==
*Leigh Harline at the Internet Movie Database
*Leigh Harline at Find a Grave
Category:Males
Category:Deceased
Category:American people
Category:Composers
Category:Songwriters
Category:Mickey Mouse
Category:Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs
Category:Pinocchio
Category:Disney Legends
Category:1900s births
Category:People from Utah
Category:1960s deaths