Lalo Schifrin obit

Lalo Schifrin Dies: ‘Mission: Impossible’ Theme Composer Who Wrote Scores For ‘Dirty Harry’, ‘Cool Hand Luke’ & 100-Plus Others Was 93

 

He was not on the list.

Lalo Schifrin, the legendary composer who penned the instantly recognizable Mission: Impossible theme and did scores for more than 100 other films and TV shows ranging from The Cincinnati Kid, Cool Hand Luke and The Sting II to Dirty Harry and the Rush Hour trilogy, has died. He was 93.

His son, writer-director Ryan Schifrin, confirmed to Deadline that his father died “peacefully” on Thursday morning.

Also a pianist and conductor, Schifrin won four Grammys on 19 career nominations spanning 40 years and was a six-time Academy Award nominee for The Sting II, The Competition, The Amityville Horror, Voyage of the Damned, The Fox and Cool Hand Luke. He received an Honorary Oscar at the 2019 Governor Awards, one of only three composers ever so honored along with Ennio Morricone in 2006 and Quincy Jones in 2024.

He earned three consecutive Grammy noms for the stirring, dramatic, 5/4-time Mission: Impossible theme from 1967-69, and variations of his composition have appeared in all of Tom Cruise’s M:I movies. Among those who worked on versions of the theme for those films are Hans Zimmer, Danny Elfman, U2’s Larry Mullin Jr & Adam Clayton and Limp Bizkit.

The Mullin-Clayton version of “Theme from Mission: Impossible” was used in the first Cruise movie and released as a single, hitting the Billboard Top 10 in 1996. A single version credited to Schifrin just missed the Top 40 in 1968.

In all, Schifrin penned more than 100 scores for film and television including Mannix, Bullitt, THX 1138, Enter the Dragon, The Four Musketeers, The Eagle Has Landed, Tango, Bringing Down the House, The Bridge of San Luis Rey, After the Sunset and Abominable.

Among his many conducting credits are the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, Mexico Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony Orchestra and the Lincoln Center Chamber Orchestra. He also served as music director for the Glendale Symphony Orchestra for six years starting in 1989.

As a jazz pianist, he worked with legends including Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz, Count Basie, Jon Faddis, James Moody, Louie Bellson and Kenny Burrell.

Born on June 21, 1932, in Bueno Aires, Schifrin was the son of Luis Schifrin, concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires at the Teatro Colon. The younger Schifrin was trained in classical music from an early age and went to study at the Paris Conservatory in the early 1950s. There he became a professional jazz pianist, composer and arranger, playing and recording in Europe.

He returned to Buenos Aires in the mid-’50s and formed his own big concert band. Gillespie caught one of his performances and asked Schifrin to become his pianist and arranger. In 1958, he moved to the U.S. and began his remarkable career in film and television.

Schifrin released more than 50 albums from 1957-2018 and was involved in 40-plus soundtrack albums. He was featured as a played on discs by the likes of Gillespie, Basie, Vaughan, The Three Tenors, Getz, Cannonball Adderly and Jimmy Smith.

 

Film

Dark Intruder (1965)

Cool Hand Luke (1967)

Bullitt (1968)

The Fox (1967)

Where Angels Go, Trouble Follows (1968)

Che! (1969)

Kelly's Heroes (1970)

Dirty Harry (1971)

The Beguiled (1971)

THX 1138 (1971)

Joe Kidd (1972)

Enter the Dragon (1973)

Magnum Force (1973)

The Eagle Has Landed (1976)

Voyage of the Damned (1976)

Rollercoaster

The Amityville Horror (1979)

The Competition (1980)

Amityville II: The Possession (1982)

Sudden Impact (1983)

The Sting II (1983)

Black Moon Rising (1986)

Rush Hour (1998)

Tango (1998)

Rush Hour 2 (2001)

Bringing Down the House (2003)

After the Sunset (2004)

Rush Hour 3 (2007)

Television

1965: The Man from U.N.C.L.E.

1966: Mission: Impossible

1967: Mannix

1969: Medical Center

1974: Planet of the Apes

1975: Starsky and Hutch

1976: Most Wanted

1982: Chicago Story

1984: Glitter

1987: Sparky's Magic Piano

1988: Mission: Impossible (revival)