Ron Goodwin

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For another person, see Ron Goodwin (American football).

Ron Goodwin
orchestral music
Occupation(s)Conductor
Years active1948–2003
Websiterongoodwin.co.uk

Ronald Alfred Goodwin (17 February 1925 – 8 January 2003) was an English composer and conductor known for his film music.[1] He scored over 70 films in a career lasting over fifty years. His most famous works included Where Eagles Dare, Battle of Britain, 633 Squadron, Margaret Rutherford's Miss Marple films, and Frenzy.

Born in

Guildhall School of Music.[1]

Whilst working as a copyist, he formed his own orchestra in his spare time and began arranging and conducting recordings for over fifty performers, which resulted in more than 100 chart successes. He wrote his first feature film score for Whirlpool, with screenplay by Lawrence P. Bachmann. After Bachmann became executive producer at MGM-British Studios in 1959, Goodwin composed and conducted the music for most of its productions, as well as working for other film studios.

In the 1980s Goodwin began concentrating on live orchestral performances and appeared as guest conductor with many

symphony orchestras at home and abroad including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra
.

Biography

Early life

Goodwin was born in

Metropolitan Police Force and Bessie Violet Goodwin née Godsland (died 1966), a clothing machinist and daughter of a labourer. James was originally from London, but had moved to Devon after being assigned to the Metropolitan Police's No. 3 (Devonport Dockyard) Division, marrying Bessie in her birthplace of Devonport in 1920.[2][3]


Goodwin learned to play the piano by the age of five and returned to London four years later, where he attended

Guildhall School of Music.[1]

Early career

In 1943, after a brief spell as an insurance clerk, Goodwin joined Campbell, Connelly and Company, a music publisher.

Jimmy Young, including the latter's 1951 UK no 1 hit "Too Young". In the 1950s he joined Parlophone, and worked alongside George Martin. He accompanied Peter Sellers on his Goodness Gracious Me album,[6]
and began to broadcast and make records with his Ron Goodwin Concert Orchestra.

In 1953, Goodwin began arranging and conducting more than 300 recordings for over fifty performers, which resulted in more than 100 chart successes. He simultaneously made his own series of recordings and broadcasts as Ron Goodwin and his Concert Orchestra, and, in addition, began to compose scores for documentary films at Merton Park Studios. In 1958, Goodwin wrote his first feature film score for Whirlpool, with screenplay by Lawrence P. Bachmann.[1] After Bachmann became executive producer at MGM British Studios in 1959, Goodwin composed and conducted the music for most of its productions, as well as working for other film studios. His singles work included recordings with jazz and calypso singer Frank Holder.

Works

Goodwin is primarily known for his film music and worked on more than 70 scores during his career. He composed his first feature film,

Force Ten from Navarone (1978).[1] After requests from the Band of the Royal Air Force, the opening from Battle of Britain, originally titled Luftwaffe March, was retitled Aces High
and is now regularly played by military bands in the UK.

He wrote the scores for Of Human Bondage (1964), Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965), Alfred Hitchcock's Frenzy (1972, replacing Henry Mancini), two movies featuring Morecambe and Wise, and the Norman Wisdom film, The Early Bird (1965).[1]

Goodwin's score for the 1966 film

BBC Radio Four panel game I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue
.

Goodwin wrote several Disney film scores during the 1970s, including the one used for

Yorkshire Television
start up music used from their launch in July 1968 to the early 1980s, before ITV had breakfast television.

Goodwin wrote the television advertising jingles such as Noddy's chant, "I like Ricicles: they're twicicle as nicicles", and the "Mr Sheen shines umpteen things clean" song, inspired by Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines.[9]

Later career

By 1987, Goodwin had begun concentrating on live orchestrations which included his "Drake 400 Suite" in 1980 and "Armada Suite" in 1988.

Hallé Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Ulster Orchestra, Detroit Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Australian Pops Orchestra, Danish Radio Orchestra and the BBC Concert Orchestra
. Goodwin was guest conductor at the Royal Academy of Music's Festival of British and American Film Music in June 1996.

Awards

In 1972, Goodwin recorded Somebody Named Ron Goodwin Plays Somebody Named Burt Bacharach and recorded internationally, winning gold and platinum discs awarded by EMI. He won a platinum disc from EMI New Zealand to mark two million sales of the album "Going Places". During his career he won three

Freeman of the City of London.[10]

Goodwin was nominated for the

Golden Globe award for best original score for the movie Frenzy
(1972).

Personal life

Goodwin was married twice and had a son, Chris, from his first marriage. Ron Shillingford, Goodwin's personal assistant for over twenty years, said of him: "Ron was a musical perfectionist who had a fine rapport with his fellow artists. He was a kind, caring man, with a wonderful sense of humour." Goodwin was enthusiastic about working with young people and was heavily involved with the Hampshire County Youth Orchestra, Worthing Youth Orchestra,

City of Leeds College of Music
and the City of Birmingham Schools' Concert Orchestra.

The road in which Goodwin lived with his family in Plymouth has since been renamed Goodwin Crescent in his memory.[11]

Death

In December 2002, Goodwin completed his 32nd consecutive year of Christmas concerts in packed venues across the South of England. However, he had suffered from asthma for many years and the condition had worsened with age. On 7 January 2003, having completed conducting a series of Christmas concerts with the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, he returned home and died in his sleep at Blacknest Cottage, Brimpton Common, Hampshire, on 8 January 2003, aged 77.[5] He is buried at St Paul's Churchyard in nearby Ashford Hill.[12]

Selected filmography

Sources

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 1-85227-937-0
    .
  2. ^ a b c d e f Lamb, Andrew, Goodwin, Ron, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, online edition, 30 December 2011 (subscription required)
  3. ^ "The Metropolitan Police History by the Yard". Met.police.uk. Archived from the original on 3 March 2013. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  4. ^ "Pinner County Grammar School records and attendance list". Olduffs.org. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  5. ^ a b "Obituary". Powell-pressburger.org. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  6. ^ "Peter Sellers & Sophia Loren – Goodness Gracious Me / I'm So Ashamed". Discogs.com. 1960. Retrieved 27 September 2014.
  7. ^ "The Trap - The London Marathon Theme". BBC Music. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  8. ^ "Ron Goodwin: The Trap". Classic fm. Retrieved 22 April 2018.
  9. ^ Gleason, Alexander (11 January 2003). "Obituary: Ron Goodwin". Theguardian.com. Retrieved 11 October 2019.
  10. ^ a b "Ron Goodwin Biography". Rongoodwin.co.uk. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
  11. ^ North Prospect messageboard (28 July 2009). "Devon – Places – North Prospect messageboard". BBC. Retrieved 21 April 2011.
  12. ^ "Burial records". Findagrave.com. Retrieved 27 September 2014.

External links

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