Emil Newman

Emil Newman, born New Haven, CT, 1911

Emil was one of the middle brothers. He made his film debut as the musical director in 1940 and was credited with 13 films, then with 25 films in 1941 and 28 films in 1942. Whispering Ghosts (1942) was his first contribution as a composer, although uncredited. His subsequent musical direction in films included the famous all-black musical, Stormy Weather (1943) and The Best Years of Our Lives (1946), which he also conducted. He composed music for 23 films between 1950 and 1965 and numerous TV shows of the 1950s. He earned an Academy Award nomination for the 1941 film Sun Valley Serenade, Best Music, Scoring of a Musical Picture.

Emil’s nephew, Randy Newman, remembered his uncle as a true eccentric. “Once Emil was supposed to be conducting a picture at Fox, but he wasn’t there,” recalled Randy. “The orchestra is sitting there waiting. So they send a guy out to Emil’s house in Malibu who finds him, in his bathrobe, smoking a cigarette and sitting on his chimney. His house had burned down.” Emil had lost all his clothes in the fire, so he came to the sound stage and conducted in his bathrobe.

Randy Newman went on to say that the Newman brothers “all had massive, Greek, tragic flaws, whether alcohol or women or gambling. Emil had all of them.”

Emil died in 1984.