Thomas Newman

Thomas Newman
Newman at 2010 Classic Brit Awards
Background information
Birth name	Thomas Montgomery Newman
Born	(1955-10-20) October 20, 1955 (age 65) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Origin	Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupation(s)	Film score composer
Instruments	Piano, violin
Years active	1979–present

Thomas Montgomery Newman (born October 20, 1955) is an American composer best known for his many film scores. In a career that has spanned over four decades, he has scored numerous classics including The Player, The Shawshank Redemption, Cinderella Man, American Beauty, The Green Mile, In the Bedroom, Angels in America, Finding Nemo, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events, WALL-E, the James Bond films Skyfall, Spectre, and the war film 1917.

Newman has been nominated for fifteen Academy Awards, tying him with fellow composer Alex North for the most nominations without a win. He has also been nominated for four Golden Globes, and has won two BAFTAs, six Grammys and an Emmy Award. Newman was honored with the Richard Kirk award at the 2000 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music.^[1] His achievements have contributed to the Newmans being the most nominated Academy Award extended family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories.

Personal life[]

Born in Los Angeles, California, Newman is the youngest son of Martha Louis Montgomery (1920–2005) and composer Alfred Newman (1900–1970), who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score nine times. He is a member of a film-scoring dynasty in Hollywood that includes his father Alfred, older brother David Newman, younger sister Maria Newman, uncles Lionel Newman and Emil Newman, cousin Randy Newman (also known as a singer and songwriter), and his first cousin, once removed, Joey Newman. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants,^[2] and his mother was from Mississippi.

During their upbringing, Martha Newman took her sons to violin lessons in the San Fernando Valley every weekend.^[3] Newman later studied composition and orchestration for two years at the University of Southern California,^[4] before transferring to Yale University, where he graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1977 and a Master of Music in 1978.^[5] While at Yale, he met composer Stephen Sondheim, who became an early mentor.^[3]

Newman and his wife Ann Marie have three children. They reside in the Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles.

Career[]

At first, Newman was more interested in musical theater than in film composition, working with Sondheim in Broadway plays.^[6] Lionel, who succeeded Alfred as music director for 20th Century Fox, gave Thomas his first scoring assignment on a 1979 episode of the series The Paper Chase.^[1] In 1983, John Williams, who was a friend of both Alfred and Lionel, invited Newman to work on Return of the Jedi, orchestrating the scene where Darth Vader dies.^[7] Afterwards Newman met producer Scott Rudin in New York City and Rudin invited him to compose the score for Reckless (1984). Newman said that he thought "it was a tough job, at first" for requiring him to "develop vocabularies and a sense of procedure", only getting comfortable with writing scores "and not fraudulent in my efforts" after 8 years.^[8]

In 1992, Newman composed the score for Robert Altman's The Player and Martin Brest's Scent of a Woman.

In 1994, he received his first Academy Award nominations with the scores for Frank Darabont's The Shawshank Redemption and Gillian Armstrong's Little Women.^[6] He also scored Jon Avnet's The War. In 1996, he scored Diane Keaton's Unstrung Heroes, receiving yet another Oscar nomination. In 1998, he scored Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer as well as Martin Brest's Meet Joe Black. In 1999, Newman composed the score to Sam Mendes' first feature film American Beauty, created using mainly percussion instruments. Newman believed the score helped move the film along without disturbing the "moral ambiguity" of the script, saying "It was a real delicate balancing act in terms of what music worked to preserve that.".^[9] He received a fourth Oscar nomination for this score, and although he lost again (to John Corigliano for The Red Violin), he did receive a Grammy and a BAFTA.

His critical and commercial success continued in the years to follow with his scores for films such as Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich, and Todd Field's In the Bedroom. He was nominated consecutively for a further three Academy Awards, for Sam Mendes' Road to Perdition (2002), Andrew Stanton's Finding Nemo (2003), and Brad Silberling's Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004). However, he lost on each occasion to Elliot Goldenthal (for Frida), Howard Shore (for The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King), and Jan A. P. Kaczmarek (for Finding Neverland).

In 2006 he teamed once again with Todd Field for Little Children and Steven Soderbergh for The Good German (he was nominated for latter). At the Oscar ceremony, he appeared in the opening segment by Errol Morris, who jokingly stated that Newman had been nominated for and failed to win an Oscar eight times. Newman replied: "No, I've failed seven but this will be my eighth", and indeed, he again lost, this time to Gustavo Santaolalla for Babel.

His first score since The Good German was for Alan Ball's Towelhead. In 2008 he scored the animated film WALL-E, collaborating for the second time with director Andrew Stanton (with the first collaboration being Finding Nemo). The film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature (as had Nemo). Newman received two Oscar nominations: one for Best Original Score, and another for Best Original Song for "Down to Earth", which he co-wrote with Peter Gabriel. He was nominated in the Original Score category with two other veteran composers, James Newton Howard and Danny Elfman, both of whom have also been nominated for several Oscars but each time unsuccessfully. Newman lost both the score and song nominations to A R Rahman for his work on Slumdog Millionaire. He and Peter Gabriel did however win a Grammy for "Down to Earth".

In 2008 he also scored Sam Mendes' Revolutionary Road. In 2009, he scored Jim Sheridan's Brothers (the remake of the Susanne Bier film). In 2011, he scored Tate Taylor's The Help, John Madden's The Debt, Phyllida Lloyd's The Iron Lady, and George Nolfi's The Adjustment Bureau.^[10]

In 2012, Newman scored John Madden's The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. He also scored the 23rd James Bond movie Skyfall, which celebrates the film franchise's 50th anniversary.^[11] His work on this film earned him his eleventh Oscar nomination and a second BAFTA win. During 2013, he scored Steven Soderbergh's Side Effects and John Lee Hancock's Saving Mr. Banks. The latter score was very well received by film music critics, earning Newman BAFTA and Oscar nominations for the second consecutive year, both of which he lost to Steven Price for Gravity.

Newman's 2014 projects included David Dobkin's The Judge and Tate Taylor's Get on Up. In 2015, he scored John Madden's The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, marking the first time Newman has scored a sequel to a film he also wrote the score for.^[12] Also that year, Newman returned to score Sam Mendes' 24th James Bond movie Spectre, the sequel to Skyfall and collaborated with Steven Spielberg for Bridge of Spies, marking Newman's first collaboration with Spielberg and the first Spielberg film not to feature a musical score from his long-time composer John Williams, since the production of The Color Purple in 1985. For his score on Bridge of Spies, Newman garnered additional Oscar and Grammy nominations.

In 2016, Newman scored the motion picture Morten Tyldum's Passengers starring Chris Pratt, Jennifer Lawrence, Michael Sheen, and Laurence Fishburne, for which he received his 14th Oscar nomination. Three years later, Newman reunited with Sam Mendes for his war film 1917, for which Newman received his 6th BAFTA and 15th Oscar nominations.

Newman likes to vary the instrumentation in his scores, ranging from full orchestra to percussion-only music. He is also fond of incorporating unusual instruments such as the zither, hurdy-gurdy, psaltery and hammered dulcimer,^[1] or unexpected sounds, like Aboriginal chants and the chirping of cicadas. The composer declared that he has "an interest in mundane experimentation."^[6]

Filmography[]

Film[]

1980s[]

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio(s)	Notes
1984	Reckless	James Foley	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	N/A
	Revenge of the Nerds	Jeff Kanew	Interscope Communications 20th Century Fox	N/A
	Grandview, U.S.A.	Randal Kleiser	CBS Entertainment Production Warner Bros. (theatrical) CBS/Fox Video (VHS release) Paramount Home Entertainment (DVD release)	N/A
1985	Desperately Seeking Susan	Susan Seidelman	Orion Pictures	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande. Album shared with Making Mr. Right
	Girls Just Want to Have Fun	Alan Metter	New World Pictures	N/A
	The Man with One Red Shoe	Stan Dragoti	20th Century Fox	An album of Newman's score released by La-La Land Records in 2018.
	Real Genius	Martha Coolidge	TriStar Pictures	N/A
1986	Gung Ho	Ron Howard	Paramount Pictures	First collaboration with Ron Howard One track released by Milan on the compilation album Ron Howard – Passions & Achievements
	Jumpin' Jack Flash	Penny Marshall	Largo Entertainment Silver Pictures 20th Century Fox	Song album with two Newman tracks
1987	Light of Day	Paul Schrader	TriStar Pictures	Song album with one Newman track
	The Lost Boys	Joel Schumacher	Warner Bros.	Song album with one Newman track
	Less Than Zero	Marek Kanievska	20th Century Fox	Song album; no Newman score; score album released by La-La Land Records in September 2016.
1988	The Great Outdoors	Howard Deutch	Hughes Entertainment Universal Pictures	Song album with one Newman track
	The Prince of Pennsylvania	Ron Nyswaner	Fine Line Features New Line Cinema	N/A
1989	Cookie	Susan Seidelman	Lorimar Film Entertainment Warner Bros.	N/A

1990s[]

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio(s)	Notes
1990	Men Don't Leave	Paul Brickman	Geffen Pictures Warner Bros.	N/A
	Welcome Home, Roxy Carmichael	Jim Abrahams	Paramount Pictures	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
1991	Career Opportunities	Bryan Gordon	Hughes Entertainment Universal Pictures	Song album with three Newman tracks released by Curb
	The Linguini Incident	Richard Shepard	Academy Entertainment	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
	Naked Tango	Leonard Schrader	New Line Cinema	N/A
	The Rapture	Michael Tolkin	Fine Line Features New Line Cinema	Song album with ten Newman tracks
	Deceived	Damian Harris	Touchstone Pictures	N/A
	Fried Green Tomatoes	Jon Avnet	Act III Communications Universal Pictures	First collaboration with Jon Avnet Song album with three Newman tracks and separate score album, both released by MCA
1992	The Player	Robert Altman	Avenue Pictures Spelling Films Fine Line Features (US) Pathé (International)	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
	Whispers in the Dark	Christopher Crowe	Paramount Pictures	Varèse Sarabande album release cancelled; released by Intrada in 2012
	Scent of a Woman	Martin Brest	City Light Films Universal Pictures	Soundtrack released by MCA
1993	Flesh and Bone	Steve Kloves	Paramount Pictures	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
	Josh and S.A.M.	Billy Weber	Castle Rock Entertainment New Line Cinema Columbia Pictures	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
1994	Threesome	Andrew Fleming	Motion Picture Corporation of America TriStar Pictures	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande. Twinned with American Buffalo
	The Favor	Donald Petrie	Orion Pictures	N/A
	The Shawshank Redemption	Frank Darabont	Castle Rock Entertainment Columbia Pictures	First collaboration with Frank Darabont Soundtrack released by Epic Soundtrax
	The War	Jon Avnet	Universal Pictures	Second collaboration with Jon Avnet Song album with 12 Newman tracks released by MCA
	Little Women	Gillian Armstrong	Columbia Pictures	Soundtrack released by Sony Classical
1995	Unstrung Heroes	Diane Keaton	Hollywood Pictures	Soundtrack released by Hollywood Records
	How to Make an American Quilt	Jocelyn Moorhouse	Amblin Entertainment Universal Pictures	Soundtrack released by MCA
1996	Up Close & Personal	Jon Avnet	Cinergi Pictures Touchstone Pictures	Third collaboration with Jon Avnet Soundtrack released by Hollywood Records
	Phenomenon	Jon Turteltaub	Touchstone Pictures	Song album with one Newman track released by Reprise
	American Buffalo	Michael Corrente	Capitol Films Channel Four Films The Samuel Goldwyn Company	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande. Twinned with Threesome
	The People vs. Larry Flynt	Miloš Forman	Phoenix Pictures Columbia Pictures	Soundtrack released by Angel Records
1997	Red Corner	Jon Avnet	Avnet-Kerner Productions Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer	Fourth collaboration with Jon Avnet Soundtrack released by EAR
	Mad City	Costa Gavras	Warner Bros.	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
	Oscar and Lucinda	Gillian Armstrong	Australian Film Finance Corporation Fox Searchlight Pictures	Soundtrack released by Sony Classical
1998	The Horse Whisperer	Robert Redford	Touchstone Pictures	Soundtrack released by Hollywood Records
	Meet Joe Black	Martin Brest	City Light Films Universal Pictures	Soundtrack released by Universal Records
1999	American Beauty	Sam Mendes	DreamWorks Pictures	First collaboration with Sam Mendes Soundtrack released by DreamWorks Records
	The Green Mile	Frank Darabont	Castle Rock Entertainment Warner Bros.	Second collaboration with Frank Darabont Soundtrack released by Warner Bros. Records.

2000s[]

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio(s)	Notes
2000	Erin Brockovich	Steven Soderbergh	Jersey Films Universal Pictures (US) Columbia Pictures (International)	First collaboration with Steven Soderbergh Soundtrack released by Sony Classical
	Pay It Forward	Mimi Leder	Bel Air Entertainment Tapestry Films Pathé Warner Bros.	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
2001	In the Bedroom	Todd Field	Good Machine Miramax Films	First collaboration with Todd Field Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
2002	The Salton Sea	D. J. Caruso	Castle Rock Entertainment Warner Bros.	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
	Road to Perdition	Sam Mendes	The Zanuck Company DreamWorks Pictures (US) 20th Century Fox (International)	Second collaboration with Sam Mendes Soundtrack released by Decca Records
	White Oleander	Peter Kosminsky	Umbrella Entertainment Warner Bros.	Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
2003	Finding Nemo	Andrew Stanton	Pixar Animation Studios Walt Disney Pictures	First collaboration with Andrew Stanton, and Newman's first score for an animated film Soundtrack released by Walt Disney Records
2004	Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events	Brad Silberling	Nickelodeon Movies Paramount Pictures (US) DreamWorks Pictures (International)	Soundtrack released by Sony Classical
2005	Cinderella Man	Ron Howard	Imagine Entertainment Miramax Films Universal Pictures (North America) Buena Vista Pictures (International)	Second collaboration with Ron Howard Soundtrack released by Decca Records
	Jarhead	Sam Mendes	Universal Pictures	Third collaboration with Sam Mendes Soundtrack released by Decca Records
2006	Little Children	Todd Field	New Line Cinema	Second collaboration with Todd Field Soundtrack released by Silva Screen Records
	The Good German	Steven Soderbergh	Virtual Studios Section Eight Productions Warner Bros.	Second collaboration with Steven Soderbergh Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
2007	Towelhead	Alan Ball	Scott Rudin Productions This is that Corporation Warner Independent Pictures	Soundtrack released by Lakeshore Records
2008	WALL-E	Andrew Stanton	Pixar Animation Studios Walt Disney Pictures	Second collaboration with Andrew Stanton Soundtrack released by Walt Disney Records
	Revolutionary Road	Sam Mendes	BBC Films DreamWorks Pictures Paramount Vantage (US) United International Pictures (International)	Fourth collaboration with Sam Mendes Soundtrack released by Nonesuch
2009	Brothers	Jim Sheridan	Relativity Media Lionsgate	Soundtrack released by Relativity Music Group

2010s[]

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio(s)	Notes
2011	The Adjustment Bureau	George Nolfi	Media Rights Capital Universal Pictures	Soundtrack released by Relativity Music Group
	The Help	Tate Taylor	Reliance Entertainment Participant Media Image Nation 1492 Pictures Touchstone Pictures DreamWorks Pictures	First collaboration with Tate Taylor Score album released by Varèse Sarabande
	The Debt	John Madden	Marv Films Miramax Films Focus Features (US) Universal Pictures (International)	First collaboration with John Madden Soundtrack released by Relativity Music Group, Silva Screen Music
	The Iron Lady	Phyllida Lloyd	Pathé Film4 UK Film Council Canal+ Goldcrest Films The Weinstein Company (US) 20th Century Fox (UK)	Soundtrack released by Sony Classical
2012	The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	John Madden	Participant Media Blueprint Pictures Fox Searchlight Pictures	Second collaboration with John Madden Soundtrack released by Sony Classical
	Skyfall	Sam Mendes	Eon Productions Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Columbia Pictures	Fifth collaboration with Sam Mendes Soundtrack released by Sony Classical
2013	Side Effects	Steven Soderbergh	FilmNation Entertainment Open Road Films	Third collaboration with Steven Soderbergh Soundtrack released by Varèse Sarabande
	Saving Mr. Banks	John Lee Hancock	Walt Disney Pictures BBC Films Essential Media Entertainment	Soundtrack released by Walt Disney Records First collaboration with John Lee Hancock
2014	Get on Up	Tate Taylor	Imagine Entertainment Universal Pictures	Second collaboration with Tate Taylor
	The Judge	David Dobkin	Village Roadshow Pictures Warner Bros.	Soundtrack released by WaterTower Music
2015	The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel	John Madden	Participant Media Blueprint Pictures Fox Searchlight Pictures	Third collaboration with John Madden
	He Named Me Malala	Davis Guggenheim	Image Nation Abu Dhabi FZ Participant Media	Soundtrack released by Sony Classical
	Bridge of Spies	Steven Spielberg	Touchstone Pictures DreamWorks Pictures 20th Century Fox	First Steven Spielberg theatrical film without his long-time composer John Williams since The Color Purple (1985), and Newman's first collaboration with Spielberg
	Spectre	Sam Mendes	Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Columbia Pictures	Sixth collaboration with Sam Mendes Soundtrack released by Decca Records
2016	Finding Dory[13]	Andrew Stanton	Walt Disney Pictures Pixar Animation Studios	Third collaboration with Andrew Stanton
	Passengers	Morten Tyldum	Columbia Pictures Village Roadshow Pictures	N/A
2017	Victoria & Abdul	Stephen Frears	Focus Features Working Title Films	N/A
	Thank You for Your Service	Jason Hall	Universal Pictures DreamWorks Pictures	N/A
2019	The Highwaymen	John Lee Hancock	Casey Silver Productions Netflix	Second collaboration with John Lee Hancock
	Tolkien	Dome Karukoski	Chernin Entertainment Fox Searchlight Pictures	N/A
	1917	Sam Mendes	Amblin Partners Universal Pictures	Seventh collaboration with Sam Mendes

2020s[]

Year	Title	Director(s)	Studio(s)	Notes
2020	Let Them All Talk	Steven Soderbergh	HBO Max	Fourth collaboration with Steven Soderbergh
2021	The Little Things	John Lee Hancock	Warner Bros. Pictures	Third collaboration with John Lee Hancock
2021	Operation Mincemeat	John Madden	FilmNation Entertainment Netflix	Fourth collaboration with John Madden
2022	Dog	Channing Tatum Reid Carolin	FilmNation Entertainment Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer United Artists Releasing	N/A
2022	Empire of Light[14]	Sam Mendes	Searchlight Pictures	Eighth collaboration with Sam Mendes

Television[]

Year	Title	Director(s)	Notes
1979	The Paper Chase	Various	"A Case Of Detente" (season 1, episode 21) Probably Thomas Newman's first film score
1985	Amazing Stories	Various	Episode "Santa '85." Soundtrack released by Intrada
1990	Heat Wave	Kevin Hooks
1992	Those Secrets	David Manson	Soundtrack released by Masters Film Music
	Citizen Cohn	Frank Pierson
2000	Boston Public	Various	Main title theme
2001	Six Feet Under	Various	Main title theme
2003	Angels in America	Mike Nichols	Soundtrack released by Nonesuch
2012	The Newsroom	Various	Main theme and pilot
2017	Five Came Back	Various	Main theme
2018	Castle Rock	Various	Main theme and six episodes

Additional soundtracks and music[]

• 2005: Brokeback Mountain (Trailer) (from The Shawshank Redemption)
• 2005: Corpse Bride (Trailer) (from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events)
• 2005: Madagascar (from American Beauty)
• 2005: Fun with Dick and Jane (from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events)
• 2006: Eight Below (Trailer) (from Finding Nemo)
• 2007: Sicko (from Little Children, Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and In the Bedroom)
• 2007: No Reservations (Trailer) (from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events and American Beauty)
• 2009: Bigfoot (Trailer) (from WALL-E)
• 2010: Alice in Wonderland (Teaser Trailer) (from Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events)

Newman has also composed music for television, including theme music for the series Boston Public and the miniseries Angels in America. His theme music for the television show Six Feet Under won two Grammy Awards in 2003, for Best Instrumental Composition as well as Best Instrumental Arrangement. He also wrote the theme for the HBO series Newsroom.

Newman also wrote a commissioned concert work for orchestra, Reach Forth Our Hands, for the 1996 Cleveland Bicentennial. The Los Angeles Philharmonic commissioned an orchestral work by Newman, It Got Dark,^[15] which was performed by the Kronos Quartet and Los Angeles Philharmonic and conducted by Leonard Slatkin during the orchestra's 2009–2010 season.^[16][17]

He composed the incidental music for the Washington Shakespeare Theatre Company's 2014 production of As You Like It, directed by Michael Attenborough and starring Zoe Waites.^[18]

He also collaborated with composer and multi-instrumentalist Rick Cox in an electro-acoustic album 35 Whirlpools Below Sound; which is released under the label Cold Blue Music in 2014.^[19]

Awards and nominations[]

References[]

External links[]

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• Thomas Newman at IMDb

Preceded by David Arnold 1997–2008

James Bond film score composer 2012–2015

Succeeded by Hans Zimmer 2020–present