Bill Conti
(born April 13, 1942 in Providence, Rhode Island) is an Italian American film music composer who is frequently the conductor at the Academy Awards ceremony.
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Early life and career
Bill Conti is a graduate of
Louisiana State University.
Bill also studied at the
Juilliard School of Music. He is a past winner of the Silver Knight Award presented by the
Miami Herald.
Rocky
series
His big break into celebrity came in 1976, when he was hired to compose the music for a small
United Artists film called
Rocky
. The film became a phenomenon, and Conti's training montage tune, "
Gonna Fly Now" topped the Billboard singles chart in 1977. He also composed music for the sequels
Rocky II
(1979),
Rocky III
(1982),
Rocky V
(1990) and
Rocky Balboa
(2006).
Other film and television credits
Conti also worked for some other films and, eventually, for television series. In 1981, he wrote the music for the
James Bond film,
For Your Eyes Only
, when
John Barry was unwilling to return to the United Kingdom for tax reasons, and provided the score for playwright
Jason Miller's film version of his
Pulitzer Prize winning play
That Championship Season the following year.
In 1983, he composed the score for HBO's first film,
The Terry Fox Story
. Conti composed music for the films
Bad Boys
and
Mass Appeal
. Then in 1984, he received an Academy Award for composing the score to 1983's
The Right Stuff
followed by composing music for the TV series
North and South
in 1985. He also composed the score for
The Karate Kid
as well as the
Masters of the Universe
live action movie. In 1999 he composed the score for
The Thomas Crown Affair
remake, starring Pierce Brosnan and Rene Russo.
He also composed the themes to television's
Dynasty
,
The Colbys
,
Falcon Crest
,
Cagney & Lacey
, and
The Lifestyles of The Rich And Famous
. Conti also composed the theme song to the original version of
American Gladiators
, worked with
CBS on the movie jingle, composed one of the early themes to
Inside Edition
, and wrote the theme to
Primetime Live
for
ABC News. In addition he composed the score to the studio altered American version of
Luc Besson's
The Big Blue
.
Awards and nominations
Bill Conti has received many award nominations for his work. He received a Best Song nomination for "
Gonna Fly Now." He won an Oscar for the largely electronic score for
The Right Stuff.
On April 22, 2008 before a packed house at the LSU Union Theatre at Louisiana State University, Bill Conti was Inducted into The
Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.