Dean Elliott

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Dean Elliott
Born
William Lorenzo Bunt

(1917-05-11)May 11, 1917
Sioux City, Iowa, U.S.
DiedDecember 31, 1999(1999-12-31) (aged 82)
Incline Village, Nevada, U.S.
OccupationComposer
Years active1950–1987
Spouse
Lila Lee Fisher
​
​
(m. 1949; died 1962)​

William Lorenzo Bunt (May 11, 1917 – December 31, 1999), known professionally as Dean Elliott, was an American television and

film composer
.

Career

Elliott was born William Lorenzo Bunt on May 11, 1917, in Sioux City, Iowa to George Leroy Bunt and Odessa Rouine Bolyard.

Educated at the

Advance and Be Mechanized, Chuck Jones' second-to-last Tom and Jerry cartoon in 1967. He also composed a few film scores, including College Confidential (1960), Sex Kittens Go to College (1960), The Las Vegas Hillbillys (1966), and The Phantom Tollbooth
(1970).

In 1962, Elliott released an

LP on Capitol Records entitled Zounds! What Sounds!, credited to "Dean Elliott and His Swinging Big, Big Band."[1] Archived September 30, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
The LP header read "Music and Sound Effects in a Stereo Spectacular!" and the subtitle captured the basic goals, sound, and feel of the album well:

A Sonic Spectacular Presenting MUSIC! MUSIC! MUSIC! With these special Percussion Effects! Cement Mixer, Air Compressor, Punching Bag, Hand Saw, Thunderstorm, Raindrops, Celery Stalks (the crunchiest), 1001 Clocks, Bowling Pins and Many Many More!!

The LP was made with the assistance of

Rhino Records' influential Cocktail Mix CDs.[3] As the space age pop/lounge revival grew in popularity, two more tracks from the album ("You're the Top" and "The Lonesome Road") were anthologized on one of the many volumes of Capitol Records' Ultra-Lounge series.[4]

After this, Elliott went on to compose for a number of

New Fantastic Four series in 1978 before moving to Warner Brothers with Chuck Jones where he provided all the music for Jones' The Bugs Bunny/Road Runner Movie in 1979, and later for Duck Dodgers and the Return of the 24½th Century and Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over in 1980, the latter of which was nominated for an Emmy. He also was musical director for Ruby-Spears Productions from 1978–1987, where he was contracted to contribute music for the likes of such shows as Fangface, The Plastic Man Comedy/Adventure Show, Heathcliff, Saturday Supercade, and Alvin and the Chipmunks
series.

In 1980, he again teamed up with Chuck Jones to score Jones' television special (for W-B!) Bugs Bunny's Bustin' Out All Over, in which the "Merrie Melodies" short Soup or Sonic (now in syndication) was derived. His musical score has distinctive Elliott themes, similar to his previous work in the 1960s for Tom and Jerry cartoons during the Chuck Jones Productions era; however, in this cartoon he employed Milt Franklyn-esque overtones with a little William Lava-ish influence.

In 1983, he scored the additional music for the Peanuts special What Have We Learned, Charlie Brown?.

His music has re-appeared in various productions including: The Bugs n' Daffy Show, That's Warner Bros!, Merrie Melodies: Starring Bugs Bunny and Friends, and

The Bugs Bunny and Tweety Show
.

Personal life

On January 30, 1949, Elliott married Lila Lee Fisher Elliott (1924-1962); Lila was killed in a car crash involving a geyser in 1962.[5]

Elliott died from Alzheimer's disease surgery[citation needed] on December 31, 1999, in Incline Village, Nevada, at the age of 82.[6]

Filmography

Cinema

Television specials

Television series

References

  1. ^ "Planet X: Zounds I". Archived from the original on September 1, 2007. Retrieved March 8, 2007.
  2. ^ RE/SEARCH #14: Incredibly Strange Music, Volume I, eds. V. Vale & Andrea Juno (San Francisco, 1993), p. 105
  3. ^ Cocktail Mix, Vol. 1: Bachelor's Guide To The Galaxy (Rhino Records CD R2 72237, 1995, now out of print).
  4. ^ Ultra-Lounge Volume Three: Space Capades (Capitol Records CD CDP 7243 8 35176 2 6, 1996).
  5. ^ "Beckley Post Herald Newspaper Archives". Newspaperarchive.com. December 20, 1962. p. 1. Retrieved October 26, 2021.
  6. ^ "Dean Elliott 1917-1999 - Ancestry®". Ancestry.com. Retrieved October 26, 2021.

External links

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