death_date death_place birth_place name background birth_date article_title birth_name occupation
7 december 1998 bennington , vermont , united states chobham , surrey , england john addison non_performing_personnel 16 march 1920 john addison
 john mervyn addison composer
john addison

john mervyn addison -lrb- 16 march 19207 december 1998 -rrb- was a british composer best known for his film scores .
addison was born in chobham , surrey to a father who was a colonel in the royal field artillery , and this influenced the decision to send him to school at wellington college , berkshire .
his grandfather was lieut col george addison , who played for the royal engineers in the 1872 and 1874 fa cup finals .
at the age of sixteen he entered the royal college of music , where he studied composition with gordon jacob , oboe with léon goossens , and clarinet with frederick thurston .
this education ended in 1939 with service in world war ii .
addison served with the british xxx corps in the 23rd hussars .
he was a tank officer in the battle of normandy and wounded at caen , later participating in operation market garden .
at the end of the war , he returned to london to teach composition at the royal college of music .
addison is best known for his film scores .
he won an academy award and a grammy award in the best original score from a motion picture or television show category for the music to the 1963 film , `` tom jones '' .
he also won a bafta award for `` a bridge too far '' -lrb- 1977 -rrb- .
his other film scores included `` a taste of honey '' -lrb- 1961 -rrb- , `` smashing time '' -lrb- 1967 -rrb- , `` the honey pot '' -lrb- 1967 -rrb- , `` sleuth '' -lrb- 1972 -rrb- , `` swashbuckler '' -lrb- 1976 -rrb- and the television series `` centennial '' -lrb- 1978 -rrb- .
he composed the theme music for the television series `` murder , she wrote '' , for which he won an emmy .
addison will also be remembered as the composer alfred hitchcock turned to when the director ended his long relationship with bernard herrmann over the score to his 1966 film `` torn curtain '' .
he had a personal connection to `` reach for the sky '' -lrb- 1956 -rrb- which he scored , since douglas bader -lrb- the subject of the movie -rrb- was his brother-in-law .
for the theatre , addison wrote the music for john osborne 's plays `` the entertainer '' -lrb- 1957 -rrb- and `` luther . ''
-lrb- 1961 -rrb- he collaborated with john cranko on a revue , `` cranks '' in 1956 .
although he wrote numerous classical compositions , addison explained that `` if you find you 're good at something , as i was as a film composer , it 's stupid to do anything else . ''
his classical works included a trumpet concerto , described by `` the times '' as `` buoyant '' and `` gershwinesque '' ; a trio for oboe , clarinet and bassoon ; `` carte blanche '' , a ballet for sadler 's wells from which an orchestral suite of `` sophisticated high spirits '' was performed at the proms ; a septet for wind and harp , a piano concerto , a concertante for oboe , clarinet , horn and orchestra ; and a partita for strings , which was warmly praised .
marlene dietrich recorded `` if he swing by the string '' and `` such trying times '' from the music in `` tom jones '' .
addison 's collection of correspondence , scores , and studio recordings were donated to the film music archives at brigham young university in 1994 .
he was survived by his wife pamela ; two sons jonathan and daniel ; daughter lucinda ; stepson rex birchenough , and stepdaughter sandra stapleton .
his daughter jane pre-deceased him .
