Dominic Frontiere obit

Dominic Frontiere, Composer for ‘The Outer Limits,’ ‘The Flying Nun,’ Dies at 86

 

He was not on the list.

Dominic Frontiere, Emmy-winning composer of such classic TV themes as “The Outer Limits,” “The Flying Nun” and “The Rat Patrol,” died Thursday in Tesuque, N.M. He was 86.

Frontiere was a fixture on the film- and TV-music scene throughout the 1960s, ’70s and ’80s, composing hundreds of hours of music, mostly for TV but also for films including “Hang ‘Em High,” “Cancel My Reservation,” “Hammersmith Is Out,” “Freebie and the Bean,” and “The Aviator.” He won a Golden Globe award for his score for “The Stunt Man” in 1980.

He also won an Emmy as musical director of “Swing Out, Sweet Land,” a patriotic TV special hosted by John Wayne in 1970. He scored three films for Wayne: “Chisum,” “The Train Robbers” and “Brannigan.”

Frontiere’s TV work dominated, however, including themes and scores for many series including “The New Breed,” “That Girl,” “Stoney Burke,” “12 O’Clock High,” “Branded,” “The Invaders,” “The Immortal,” “Search,” “Vega$” and “Matt Houston.”

His largest-scale work for TV was the 12-hour miniseries “Washington: Behind Closed Doors,” composed during his stint as head of music for Paramount in the mid-1970s. His other TV movies included “Probe,” “Haunts of the Very Rich” and “Palomino.”

Frontiere was born June 17, 1931, in New Haven, Conn., and played both violin and accordion as a youngster. He performed with Horace Heidt’s big band in the late 1940s and early 1950s, moving to Hollywood where he met fellow New Haven native Alfred Newman, then music director at 20th Century-Fox.

Newman took him under his wing (“he was like a father to me,” Frontiere once said), gave him jobs as an accordion player on many Fox films, and guided his career as a budding composer and arranger in the late 1950s and early ’60s.

Frontiere launched his composing career at Fox in 1960-61 with the films “Seven Thieves,” “One Foot in Hell” and “The Marriage-Go-Round.” With “The Marriage-Go-Round” he began a long partnership with writer-producer Leslie Stevens that later encompassed several TV series including “Stoney Burke,” “The Outer Limits,” “The Name of the Game,” “Search” and several pilots.

He was also active on the recording front, composing the 1959 “Pagan Festival,” a classic in the exotica field; and “Love Eyes,” a 1960 mood-music album. He later did arrangements for pop, rock and soul artists including Gladys Knight, Dan Fogelberg, Chicago, and The Tubes.

Frontiere’s career was temporarily derailed in 1986 when he was sentenced to a year in federal prison for filing a false income tax return and lying to IRS investigators to conceal his role in scalping tickets to the 1980 Super Bowl. At the time, his wife Georgia Frontiere was owner of the Los Angeles Rams.

He served only a few months in prison and resumed his composing career in 1987. He and Georgia were divorced in 1988; she died in 2008.

“The Color of Night,” which earned him a 1994 Golden Globe nomination for best song, was his last film credit. He moved to New Mexico in the 1990s and continued to work in the electronic-music medium.

Survivors include his wife Robin, and five children. Donations in his name may be made to the Mr. Holland’s Opus Foundation or Little Kids Rock.

 

 

Selected works

Television

 

1961: The New Breed

1962: Stoney Burke

1963: The Outer Limits (first season only)

1964: 12 O'Clock High

1965: Branded

1966: The Rat Patrol

1966: Iron Horse

1967: The Invaders

1967: The Fugitive

1967: The Flying Nun

1970: The Immortal

1970: The Silent Force

1970: Swing Out, Sweet Land (TV special)

1972: Search

1974: Chopper One

1974: Movin' On

1977: Washington: Behind Closed Doors

1978: Perfect Gentlemen

1978: Vega$

1981: Strike Force

1982: Don't Go to Sleep

1982: Matt Houston

Film

 

1960: One Foot in Hell

1961: The Marriage-Go-Round

1965: Billie

1966: Incubus

1968: Hang 'Em High

1969: Popi

1969: Number One

1970: Chisum

1971: On Any Sunday

1972: Hammersmith Is Out

1973: The Train Robbers

1973: A Name for Evil

1974: Freebie and the Bean

1975 Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold

1975: Brannigan

1976: The Gumball Rally

1980: Defiance

1980: The Stunt Man

1981: Roar (credited as the composer of "Togar's Theme")

1981: Modern Problems

1985: The Aviator

1994: Color of Night