Allan Gray (composer)

Allan Gray (23 February 1904 [Bawden, Liz-Anne: The Oxford Companion to Film, ISBN-0192115413, p 303] – 10 September, 1973) was a composer, noted for his film scores.

He was born Josef Zmigrod in Tarnów, which was then in Austria-Hungary, but is now part of Poland. He studied under the renowned Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg during the 1920s, and later wrote music for Max Reinhardt's theatre productions. As Schoenberg disapproved of such music, Zmigrod took up the pen name Allan Gray, naming himself after Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray ( [http://www.powell-pressburger.org/Reviews/Gray/Allan02.html] ).

He began writing film scores in Germany, but left the country after the rise of the Nazis settling in England. Establishing himself in the British film industry, he composed for London Films and other major studios before joining Powell and Pressburger for a number of films such as "The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" (1943), "A Canterbury Tale" (1944), "I Know Where I'm Going!" (1945) and "A Matter of Life and Death" (1946).

Allan Gray died in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in 1973.

elected works

Film scores

*"Berlin - Alexanderplatz" (1931)
*"F.P.1" (1933)
*"The Challenge" (1938)
*"The Silver Fleet (1943)
*"The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp" (1943)
*"The Volunteer (1943)
*"A Canterbury Tale" (1944)
*"I Know Where I'm Going!" (1945)
*"A Matter of Life and Death" (1946)
*"The Reluctant Widow" (1951)
*"The African Queen" (1951)

Other works

*"Wavelength ABC", a children's opera

References

Notes

Most (online) resources give 1902 as Zmigrod's birthyear. Several print resources like "The Oxford Companion to Film", "Halliwell’s Filmgoer’s Companion" or the British "Film and Television Yearbook" list 1904. According to researcher Jerzy Sliwa from Kraków, a search in the archives of Tarnów also came up with 1904 ( [http://fsm.rciwebhosting.net/board/posts.cfm?threadID=12242&forumID=1&archive=1] ).

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