Gerald Fried, Emmy Winner for ‘Roots’ and Composer for ‘Star Trek,’ ‘Gilligan’s Island,’ Dies at 95
He was not on the list.
Composer Gerald Fried, who won an Emmy for the landmark miniseries “Roots” and whose 1960s scores, from “Star Trek” to “Gilligan’s Island,” left an indelible impression on a generation of TV watchers, died of pneumonia Friday at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He was 95.
His wide-ranging career included scoring five early Stanley Kubrick films, including “Paths of Glory” and “The Killing”; receiving the only Oscar nomination ever given for a documentary score, 1975’s “Birds Do It, Bees Do It”; and earning five other Emmy nominations for music in specials, TV movies and miniseries.
The prolific Fried scored approximately 40 films, some three dozen TV-movies and miniseries, and episodes of another 40 TV series during a career that spanned more than six decades.
Among his most famous TV series music was from the original “Star Trek.” He scored five episodes of the series, most famously the Spock-in-heat episode “Amok Time,” which featured his Vulcan-battle music that was often used on the series and later parodied on shows like “The Simpsons” and movies including “The Cable Guy.”
Fried also scored nearly two dozen episodes of the popular spy series “The Man From U.N.C.L.E.,” musically establishing the locales for the globetrotting secret agents; and about a dozen episodes of the castaway sitcom “Gilligan’s Island,” which, because of endless reruns, earned him more in royalties than anything else he ever scored.
He spoke about the pressures of TV scoring in a 2003 interview for the Television Academy: “In TV, you see it once, go home, and next Friday you’re conducting the music. It was terrifying and exhilarating. The schedules were so tight, I had to go on my first ideas. There was an orchestra waiting and you had to have the music ready. With that kind of pressure, you learn real fast what works and what doesn’t.”
Fried scored episodes of many classic TV series including “Ben Casey,” “Mission: Impossible,” “Lost in Space,” “Gunsmoke,” “Wagon Train,” “Mannix,” “Police Woman” and “Dynasty.” Rarely did he get to write or co-write the themes, although he did in the case of the 1950s jazz western “Shotgun Slade,” the ’60s caveman sitcom “It’s About Time” and the steamy ’80s nighttime soap “Flamingo Road.”
In November 1976, “Roots” producers David L. Wolper and Stan Margulies began to worry that their original choice for composer, Quincy Jones, was missing deadlines and might not finish the music in time for its January 1977 airdate. They turned to Fried, who had scored their TV movie “I Will Fight No More Forever”; the composer received a phone call telling him to “keep your pencils sharp and your mouth shut.”
Fried was quietly hired, and while Jones’ music was used during the first two hours, set in Africa, the remaining 10 hours of the miniseries – TV’s first serious look at the horrors of slavery in America – were scored by Fried. Emmys were later presented to both composers.
Fried’s “Roots” theme embodied the hopes of African-born slaves for freedom, but much of his score was based on his extensive knowledge of 19th-century American folk music, with lots of banjo, guitar, fiddle and harmonica throughout. Controversy later erupted when Fried publicly objected to Jones’ album of “music from and inspired by” the series, which he felt was a deliberate attempt to supplant an actual “original soundtrack” which would have featured Fried’s much longer, more developed score.
No album of the Fried score was ever released. But he did go on to score the 14-hour sequel, “Roots: The Next Generations,” which was nominated for a 1979 music Emmy. He received four other Emmy nominations, for the 1967 documentary “Gauguin in Tahiti,” the 1980 TV-movie “Moviola: The Silent Lovers,” an acclaimed choral score (based on Lakota Sioux chants and poems) for the five-hour 1984 “The Mystic Warrior” and the six-hour “Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story” in 1987.
Fried was introduced to movies by his childhood friend Stanley Kubrick; Fried scored the budding director’s first short, the 1951 “Day of the Fight,” and went on to score Kubrick’s first four features: “Fear and Desire,” “Killer’s Kiss,” and “The Killing,” ending with the antiwar classic “Paths of Glory” in 1957. He also scored four films for director Robert Aldrich, including “The Killing of Sister George” (1968) and “Too Late the Hero” (1970).
His other films included Jack Nicholson’s debut film “The Cry Baby Killer” (1958), the Roger Corman-directed “Machine Gun Kelly” (1958), the interracial marriage story “One Potato, Two Potato” (1964) and the Sylvia Plath adaptation “The Bell Jar” (1979). He scored about 20 documentaries, including several “National Geographic” specials, culminating in his 1975 Oscar nomination for Wolper’s “Birds Do It, Bees Do It,” the only doc ever nominated for Best Original Score.
Fried was born in the Bronx, Feb. 13, 1928, and attended New York’s High School of Music and Art. He studied oboe at the Juilliard School of Music and, from 1948 to 1956, was first oboist with the Dallas Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony and New York’s Little Orchestra. He moved to Los Angeles in 1957 and played for one season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
From 1958 on, however, he became busy as a TV and film composer, although he never completely left the oboe behind. Decades after his “Star Trek” music became famous, he wrote a mini-concerto for the instrument based on eight of his “Trek” themes, and after retiring to Santa Fe, N.M. in 2000, he performed in the city’s community orchestra and big band. He moved with his family to Connecticut six years ago.
His last film credit was the 2020 sci-fi spoof “Unbelievable!!!!!” which featured cameos by many “Star Trek” stars including Nichelle Nichols, Walter Koenig and Michael Dorn.
Fried was a strong supporter of the fight against AIDS. His 5-year-old son Zack died of AIDS in 1987; born prematurely with severe medical issues, he was given 27 blood transfusions, one or more of which turned out to be tainted with HIV. The Fried family produced a line of T-shirts adorned with Zack’s drawings, proceeds of which were donated to AIDS fundraisers.
Survivors include his wife, Anita; four children, six grandchildren and three great-grandchildren.
Filmography
Day of the Fight (1951) - (Short Documentary) - Director: Stanley Kubrick
Fear and Desire (1953) - Director: Stanley Kubrick
Lili (1953) - Director: Charles Walters (Composer: Additional Music - Uncredited)
Killer's Kiss (1955) - Director: Stanley Kubrick
The Killing (1956) - Director: Stanley Kubrick
Paths of Glory (1957) - Director: Stanley Kubrick
The Vampire (1957) - Director: Paul Landres
Bayou (1957) - Director: Harold Daniels
Trooper Hook (1957) - Director: Charles Marquis Warren
Dino (1957) - Director: Thomas Carr
I Bury the Living (1958) - Director: Albert Band
The Return of Dracula (1958) - Director: Paul Landres
The Flame Barrier (1958) - Director: Paul Landres
Machine-Gun Kelly (1958) - Director: Roger Corman
The Lost Missile (1958) - Director: Lester Wm. Berke
I Mobster (1958) - Director: Roger Corman
The Cry Baby Killer (1958) - Director: Jus Addiss
Terror in a Texas Town (1958) - Director: Joseph H. Lewis
Curse of the Faceless Man (1958) - Director: Edward L. Cahn
M Squad (TV Series) (3 Episodes)
Dead or Alive (1958)
The Big Kill (1958)
Prescription for Murder (1958)
High School Big Shot (1959) - Director: Joel Rapp
Schlitz Playhouse (TV Series) (1 Episode)
The Salted Mine (1959)
Timbuktu (1959) - Director: Jacques Tourneur
Wagon Train (TV Series) (1 Episode)
The Steve Campden Story (1959)
Cast a Long Shadow (1959) - Director: Thomas Carr
Shotgun Slade (TV Series) (17 Episodes)
The Missing Train (1959)
The Salted Mine (1959)
The Deadly Key (1960)
Donna Juanita (1960)
The Golden Tunnel (1960)
A Flower for Jenny (1960)
The Fabulous Fiddle (1960)
Crossed Guns (1960)
Sudden Death (1960)
Backtrack (1960)
Killer's Brand (1960)
A Flower on Boot Hill (1960)
Charcoal Bullet (1960)
Lost Gold (1960)
Ring of Death (1960)
The Smell of Money (1960)
The Spanish Box (1960)
Riverboat (TV Series) (15 Episodes)
The Blowup (1960)
The Wichita Arrows (1960)
Fort Epitaph (1960)
End of a Dream (1960)
That Taylor Affair (1960)
The Two Faces of Grey Holden (1960)
River Champion (1960)
No Bridge on the River (1960)
Trunk Full of Dreams (1960)
The Water of Gorgeous Springs (1960)
Devil in Skirts (1960)
The Quota (1960)
Chicota Landing (1960)
Zigzag (1960)
Listen to the Nightingale (1961)
A Cold Wind in August (1961) - Director: Alexander Singer
Twenty Plus Two (1961) - Director: Joseph M. Newman
The Second Time Around (1961) - Director: Vincent Sherman
Whispering Smith (TV Series) (3 Episodes)
Stake-Out (1961)
Three for One (1961)
The Interpreter (1961)
The Cabinet of Caligari (1962) - Director: Roger Kay
The Great Rights (1963) (Short) - Director: William T. Hurtz
Breaking Point (TV Series) (1 Episode)
Fire and Ice (1963)
Specials for United Artists: December 7th - The Day of Infamy (1963) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Marshall Flaum
Specials for United Artists: The Yanks Are Coming (1963) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Marshall Flaum
Specials for United Artists: Ten Seconds That Shook the World (1963) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Marshall Flaum
Specials for United Artists: The American Woman in the 20th Century (1963) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Marshall Flaum
Story of a Rodeo Cowboy (1963) (Documentary) - Director: Kent MacKenzie
Specials for United Artists: The Rise and Fall of American Communism (1964) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Marshall Flaum
Specials for United Artists: Berlin - Kaiser to Khrushchev (1964) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Marshall Flaum
One Potato, Two Potato (1964) - Director: Larry Peerce
My Three Sons (TV Series) (1 Episode)
A Serious Girl (1964)
Specials for United Artists: The Battle of Britain (1964) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Marshall Flaum
Specials for United Artists: Trial at Nuremberg (1964) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Marshall Flaum
Gunsmoke (TV Series) (1 Episode)
Dry Road to Nowhere (1965)
Gilligan's Island (TV Series) (39 Episodes)
So Sorry, My Island Now (1965)
X Marks the Spot (1965)
Gilligan Meets Jungle Boy (1965)
How to Be a Hero (1965)
Forget Me Not (1965)
Diogenes, Won't You Please Go Home? (1965)
Physical Fatness (1965)
It's Magic (1965)
A Nose by Any Other Name (1965)
Gilligan's Mother-in-Law (1965)
Beauty Is as Beauty Does (1965)
The Little Dictator (1965)
Feed the Kitty (1966)
Operation: Steam Heat (1966)
Will the Real Mr. Howell Please Stand Up? (1966)
Ghost-a-Go-Go (1966)
Allergy Time (1966)
V for Vitamins (1966)
Mr. and Mrs. ??? (1966)
Meet the Meteor (1966)
Up at Bat (1966)
Gilligan vs. Gilligan (1966)
Pass the Vegetables, Please (1966)
Voodoo (1966)
Where There's a Will (1966)
Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow (1966)
Ring Around Gilligan (1966)
Topsy-Turvy (1966)
The Invasion (1966)
The Kidnapper (1966)
And Then There Were None (1966)
All About Eva (1966)
Gilligan Goes Gung-Ho (1966)
Take a Dare (1967)
The Second Ginger Grant (1967)
The Secret of Gilligan's Island (1967)
The Pigeon (1967)
Bang! Bang! Bang! (1967)
Gilligan, the Goddess (1967)
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (TV Series) (45 Episodes)
Alexander the Greater Affair: Part One (1965)
Alexander the Greater Affair: Part Two (1965)
The Discotheque Affair (1965)
The Arabian Affair (1965)
The Deadly Toys Affair (1965)
The Cherry Blossom Affair (1965)
The Children's Day Affair (1965)
The Adriatic Express Affair (1965)
The Yukon Affair (1965)
The Very Important Zombie Affair (1965)
The Deadly Goddess Affair (1966)
The Bridge of Lions Affair: Part 1 (1966)
The Bridge of Lions Affair: Part II (1966)
The Foreign Legion Affair (1966)
The Moonglow Affair (1966)
The Project Deephole Affair (1966)
The Bat Cave Affair (1966)
The Indian Affairs Affair (1966)
The Her Master's Voice Affair (1966)
The Sort of Do-It-Yourself Dreadful Affair (1966)
The Super-Colossal Affair (1966)
The Monks of St. Thomas Affair (1966)
The Thor Affair (1966)
The Candidate's Wife Affair (1966)
The Off-Broadway Affair (1966)
The Come with Me to the Casbah Affair (1966)
The Abominable Snowman Affair (1966)
The My Friend the Gorilla Affair (1966)
The Jingle Bells Affair (1966)
The Take Me to Your Leader Affair (1966)
The Suburbia Affair (1967)
The Deadly Smorgasbord Affair (1967)
The Yo-Ho-Ho and a Bottle of Rum Affair (1967)
The Napoleon's Tomb Affair (1967)
The It's All Greek to Me Affair (1967)
The Hula Doll Affair (1967)
The Pieces of Fate Affair (1967)
The Matterhorn Affair (1967)
The Hot Number Affair (1967)
The When in Roma Affair (1967)
The Apple a Day Affair (1967)
The Five Daughters Affair: Part I (1967)
The Five Daughters Affair: Part II (1967)
The Cap and Gown Affair (1967)
The Test Tube Killer Affair (1967)
Deathwatch (1966) - Director: Vic Morrow (Featuring: Leonard Nimoy)
One Spy Too Many (1966) - Director: Joseph Sargent
One of Our Spies Is Missing (1966) - Director: E. Darrell Hallenbeck
Felony Squad (TV Series) (1 Episode)
The Death of a Dream (1966)
Jericho (TV Series) (1 Episode)
Eric the Redhead (1966)
The Man Who Never Was (TV Series) (14 Episodes)
All That Lia Ever Wanted (1966)
Escape (1966)
Death in Vienna (1966)
A Little Ignorance (1966)
Target: Eva (1966)
Big Fish (1966)
Pay Now, Pray Later (1966)
Game of Death (1966)
If This Be Treason (1966)
To Kill an Albatross (1966)
Things Dead and Done (1966)
The Perfect Crime (1966)
In Memory of Davos (1966)
Drop by Drop (1966)
It's About Time (TV Series) (22 Episodes)
And Then I Wrote Happy Birthday to You (1966)
The Copper Caper (1966)
The Initiation (1966)
Tailor Made Hero (1966)
The Rainmakers (1966)
He Caveman - You Woman (1966)
The Champ (1966)
Mark Your Ballots (1966)
Have I Got a Girl for You (1966)
Cave Movies (1966)
Androcles and Clon (1966)
Love Me, Love My Gnook (1966)
The Broken Idol (1966)
The Sacrifice (1966)
King Hec (1966)
The Mother-in-Law (1966)
Which Doctor's Witch? (1967)
To Catch a Thief (1967)
20th Century Here We Come (1967)
To Sign or Not to Sign (1967)
Our Brothers' Keepers (1967)
The Stowaway (1967)
T.H.E. Cat (TV Series) (3 Episodes)
To Bell T.H.E. Cat (1966)
A Hot Place to Die (1967)
A Slight Family Trait (1967)
Star Trek (TV Series) (5 Episodes)
Shore Leave (1966)
Amok Time (1967)
Catspaw (1967)
Friday's Child (1967)
The Paradise Syndrome (1968)
Mission: Impossible (TV Series) (6 Episodes)
Odds on Evil (1966)
The Widow (1967)
Trek (1967)
Operation "Heart" (1967)
The Diplomat (1968)
The Code (1969)
Mr. Terrific (TV Series) (3 Episodes)
Matchless (1967)
Stanley the Safecracker (1967)
Harley and the Killer (1967)
The Karate Killers (1967) - Director: Barry Shear
Dundee and the Culhane (TV Series) (1 Episode)
The Murderer Stallion Brief (1967)
The Iron Horse (TV Series) (4 Episodes)
T Is for Traitor (1967)
Six Hours to Sky High (1967)
The Return of Hode Avery (1967)
Five Days to Washtiba (1967)
National Geographic (TV Series Documentary) (1 Episode)
Winged World (1967)
Lost in Space (TV Series) (2 Episodes)
Collision of the Planets (1967)
Castles in Space (1967)
Family Affair (TV Series) (2 Episodes)
The Mother Tongue (1967)
Christmas Came a Little Early (1968)
Danger Has Two Faces (1968) (TV Movie) - Director: John Newland
The Killing of Sister George (1968) - Director: Robert Aldrich
California (1968) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Donald Wrye
What Ever Happened to Aunt Alice? (1969) - Director: Lee H. Katzin
Mannix (TV Series) (1 Episode)
A Sleep in the Deep (1969)
Image of the City (1969) (Short) - Director: Charles and Ray Eames
Too Late the Hero (1970) - Director: Robert Aldrich
The Enchanted Years (1971) (Documentary) - Director: Nicolas Noxon
The Grissom Gang (1971) - Director: Robert Aldrich
The Sixth Sense (TV Series) (1 Episode)
Once Upon a Chilling (1972)
The Baby (1973) - Director: Ted Post
Birds Do It, Bees Do It (1974) (Documentary) - Director: Nicolas Noxon
I Will Fight No More Forever (1975) (TV Movie) - Director: Richard T. Heffron
Police Story (TV Series) (1 Episode)
Losing Game (1975)
Police Woman (TV Series) (2 Episodes)
Pattern for Evil (1975)
Cold Wind (1975)
Survive! (1976) - Director: René Cardona Jr.
Vigilante Force (1976) - Director: George Armitage
Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy Incident (TV Movie) - Director: Delbert Mann
Roots (TV Miniseries) (7 Episodes)
Part II (1977)
Part III (1977)
Part IV (1977)
Part V (1977)
Part VI (1977)
Part VII (1977)
Part VIII (1977)
The Spell (1977) (TV Movie) - Director: Lee Philips
Testimony of Two Men (1977) (TV Miniseries) - Director: Leo Penn
Sex and the Married Woman (1977) (TV Movie) - Director: Jack Arnold
Roots: One Year Later (1978) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Robert Guenette
Cruise Into Terror (1978) (TV Movie) - Director: Bruce Kessler
Maneaters Are Loose! (1978) (TV Movie) - Director: Timothy Galfas
The Beasts Are on the Streets (1978) (TV Movie) - Director: Peter R. Hunt
Rescue from Gilligan's Island (1978) (TV Movie) - Director: Leslie H. Martinson
The Immigrants (1978) (TV Movie) - Director: Alan J. Levi
Emergency! (TV Series) (2 Episodes)
Greatest Rescues of Emergency (1978)
The Convention (1979)
The Incredible Journey of Doctor Meg Laurel (1979) (TV Movie) - Director: Guy Green
Roots: The Next Generations (TV Miniseries) (7 Episodes)
Chapter 1 - 1880s (1979)
Chapter 2 - Turn of the 20th Century (1979)
Chapter 3 - World War I (1979)
Chapter 4 - The Great Depression (1979)
Chapter 5 - World War II (1979)
Chapter 6 - Postwar (1979)
Chapter 7 - The 1960s (1979)
The Bell Jar (1979) - Director: Larry Peerce
The Chisholms (1979) (TV Miniseries) - Director: Mel Stuart
The Castaways on Gilligan's Island (1979) (TV Movie) - Director: Earl Bellamy
The Rebels (1979) (TV Movie) - Director: Russ Mayberry
Son-Rise: A Miracle of Love (1979) (TV Movie) - Director: Glenn Jordan
The Seekers (1979) (TV Movie) - Director: Sidney Hayers
Breaking Up Is Hard to Do (1979) (TV Movie) - Director: Lou Antonio
Disaster on the Coastliner (1979) (TV Movie) - Director: Richard C. Sarafian
The Ordeal of Dr. Mudd (1980) (TV Movie) - Director: Paul Wendkos
Gauguin the Savage (1980) (TV Movie) - Director: Fielder Cook
The Silent Lovers (1980) (TV Movie) - Director: John Erman
Condominium (1980) (TV Movie) - Director: Sidney Hayers
The Wild and the Free (1980) (TV Movie) - Director: James Hill
Flamingo Road (TV Series) (7 Episodes)
Pilot (1980)
Illicit Weekend (1981)
The Titus Tapes (1981)
A Mother's Revenge (1981)
The Fish Fry (1981)
Bad Girl (1981)
They Drive by Night (1981)
The Harlem Globetrotters on Gilligan's Island (1981) (TV Movie) - Director: Peter Baldwin
Murder Is Easy (1982) (TV Movie) - Director: Claude Whatham
American Playhouse (TV Series) (1 Episode)
For Us the Living: The Medgar Evers Story (1983)
Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E.: The Fifteen Years Later Affair (1983) (TV Movie) - Director: Ray Austin
Casablanca (TV Series) (2 Episodes)
Jenny (1983)
Divorce Casablanca Style (1983)
A Killer in the Family (1983) (TV Movie) - Director: Richard T. Heffron
Dynasty (TV Series) (3 Episodes)
The Proposal (1983)
The Accident (1984)
The Voice: Part 1 (1984)
Australia's Animal Mysteries (1984) (TV Movie Documentary) - Director: Barbara Jampel
The Mystic Warrior (1984) (TV Movie) - Director: Richard T. Heffron
Embassy (1985) (TV Movie) - Director: Robert Michael Lewis
Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story (TV Miniseries) (3 Episodes)
Episode #1.1 (1987)
Episode #1.2 (1987)
Episode #1.3 (1987)
Drop-Out Mother (1988) (TV Movie) - Director: Charles S. Dubin
Roots: The Gift (1988) (TV Movie) - Director: Kevin Hooks
Star Trek New Voyages: Phase II (TV Series) (1 Episode)
In Harms Way (2004)
20 Ways (2012) (Short) - Director: Peter M. Kershaw
Psyche Ascending (2013) (Short) - Director: Peter M. Kershaw
Unbelievable!!!!! (2020) (feature) - Director: Steven L. Fawcette
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