Daniel Licht obit

Daniel Licht, ‘Dexter,’ ‘Children of the Corn’ Composer, Dies at 60

 

He was not on the list.

Daniel Licht, composer for TV’s “Dexter,” died of cancer late Wednesday. He was 60.

Licht scored all eight seasons of “Dexter,” the Showtime serial-killer drama, from 2006 to 2013. Although he also wrote music for movies and other TV projects, it was his quirky music for “Dexter” – employing unusual sounds using bones, knives, scissors, duct tape, wine glasses, didgeridoo, Irish harp and other instruments – that became his best-known work.

Seven albums of “Dexter” music, all featuring his scores, were released. Licht himself played many of the percussion instruments in a 10-minute orchestral suite of “Dexter” music performed live at Poland’s Krakow Film Music Festival in 2015.

Said “Dexter” executive producer Clyde Phillips: “Dan was an incredibly talented musician and composer, but most of all, he was a dear friend. His passing leaves all of us a bit quieter, a bit sadder, and without the gift of his music and his love.”

Many of Licht’s scores were in the horror genre, including two installments in the “Children of the Corn” series, two “Amityville” movies, Clive Barker’s “Hellraiser: Bloodline” and the Stephen King thriller “Thinner,” all in the 1990s. But he also scored NBC’s 1998 adaptation of Aldous Huxley’s “Brave New World,” Showtime’s 2000 Jimi Hendrix biopic “Hendrix,” and Hallmark’s 2004 adventure miniseries “King Solomon’s Mines.”

He also scored a number of indie and festival favorites including Alex Cox’s “The Winner,” Gregg Araki’s “Splendor” and Xavier Koller’s “Cowboy Up.

Licht composed music for a number of other TV series including Fox’s “Oliver Beene” and “Kitchen Confidential”; ABC’s “Jake in Progress,” “Cashmere Mafia,” “Body of Proof”; NBC’s “Deception’; Sundance’s “The Red Road”; and Freeform’s “Guilt.” His TV-movie “Tiny House of Terror” recently debuted on Lifetime.

He had also branched out into the videogame arena, scoring two in the “Silent Hill” PlayStation series (“Downpour” and “Book of Memories”) and the first two games in the “Dishonored” series.

He won six BMI TV music awards, all for “Dexter” and “Body of Proof.”

Licht was born in Detroit, played clarinet and guitar as a youth, and graduated from Hampshire College in Massachusetts, studying jazz, world music and composition. He moved to New York City, where he played jazz with Don Cherry and David Amram and began working in music for commercials.

He also traveled to the Far East, studying gamelan music on the islands of Java and Bali. At the urging of his friend and college classmate Christopher Young, he moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, initially programming and performing on synthesizers for Young’s film scores and eventually launching his own career as a film composer.

He is survived by his wife Hilary Kimblin Licht; a son, Kian; his mother, two brothers, a sister and several nieces and nephews. A memorial service is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Aug. 18 at Theatricum Botanicum in Topanga, Calif. The family has requested that donations in his name be made to Hampshire College or the National Cancer Institute.

 

Film

Year     Title     Notes

1991    Children of the Night 

1992    Final Embrace

Amityville: It's About Time   

Severed Ties   

Inside Out III  

Children of the Corn II: The Final Sacrifice  

Inside Out IV 

1993    Acting on Impulse      

Ticks   

Where Are We? Our Trip Through America  

Amityville: A New Generation          

A Girls' Guide to Sex 

1994    The Hard Truth          

1995    Children of the Corn III: Urban Harvest        

Zooman          

1996    Woman Undone         

Hellraiser: Bloodline  

The Winner    

Thinner           

Bad Moon      

1998    The Patron Saint of Liars       

Brave New World      

Legion of Fire: Killer Ants!   

Permanent Midnight  

Thirst  

1999    Splendor         

Don't Look Under the Bed     

Execution of Justice   

2000    Cabin by the Lake      

Hendrix          

2001    Anatomy of a Hate Crime      

Cowboy Up    

Soul Survivors

Off Season     

2002    Video Voyeur: The Susan Wilson Story        

2004    ABC's of Newborn Baby Care          

King Solomon's Mines           

2005    Icon    

2008    The Memory Keeper's Daughter        

Gym Teacher: The Movie      

2010    Dumbstruck    

Wake  

2016    Ghostmates     

Television series

Year     Title     Notes

2003    Oliver Beene  

2005–2006      Jake in Progress         

Kitchen Confidential  

2006–2013      Dexter

2008    Cashmere Mafia         

2009    Maneater        

2010    Romantically Challenged       

2011–2012      Humsafar         Pakistani serial; Uncredited; Some of the Dexter score is used, most likely in an unofficial capacity.

2011–2013      Body of Proof

2012    Don't Trust the B— in Apartment 23  Pilot episode only

2013    Deception[8]  

2014–2015      The Red Road

2016    Guilt   

Video games

Year     Title     Notes

2012    Silent Hill: Downpour[9]       

Dishonored[1]

Silent Hill: Book of Memories[8]      

2016    Dishonored 2[10]       

2017    Dishonored: Death of the Outsider