19 Facts About Fred Steiner

Frederick Steiner was an American composer, conductor, orchestrator, film historian and arranger for television, radio and film.

Fred Steiner composed and orchestrated additional music for Star Trek: The Motion Picture, was part of the team of composers for the 1985 film The Color Purple, which received an Oscar nomination, and was an uncredited composer for Return of the Jedi.

Fred Steiner was most active in television series during the 1950s and 1960s.

Fred Steiner was born on February 24,1923, in New York City, the son of Hungarian-born film composer George Fred Steiner.

Fred Steiner began playing the piano at age six, and at age 13 had expanded his music studies to include the cello and music theory.

Fred Steiner was considered a child prodigy and, from a very early age, had a desire to do the same work his father did - composing film and radio scores.

Fred Steiner received his degree in music composition from Oberlin in 1943.

Straight out of college, Fred Steiner began composing and arranging scores for New York-based radio broadcasts.

Fred Steiner composed for several wartime propaganda shorts made to sell war bonds.

When Fred Steiner was later employed as an orchestrator for various later radio broadcasts, he was inexperienced but studied Van Cleave closely to develop his own skills.

In 1945 Fred Steiner was appointed the first music director of This is Your FBI, composing and arranging for 47 episodes of the radio crime drama.

Fred Steiner wrote for a number of television series, including many episodes of the original Star Trek series.

Fred Steiner said he wrote such a jazzy theme because he envisioned lawyer-sleuth Mason as a flamboyant, film noir type often out on the town, but Mason as portrayed in the series was a somewhat reserved character seen mostly in his office or in court.

Fred Steiner composed the main theme to The Bullwinkle Show and Follow That Man and contributed music to episodes of Lost in Space, The Twilight Zone, and Amazing Stories.

Fred Steiner received a doctorate in musicology from the University of Southern California in 1981.

Fred Steiner's dissertation was about the early career of film composer Alfred Newman.

Fred Steiner became one of the first to bring musicology and film perspective together.

Fred Steiner died on June 23,2011, at his home in Ajijic, Jalisco, Mexico, after suffering a stroke at the age of 88.

Fred Steiner was survived by his wife of 64 years, Shirley Steiner; two daughters, singer-songwriter Wendy Waldman and Jillian Sandrock of Ajijic, Mexico; his sister, Kay Gellert; two nieces; one nephew; two great-nieces; three great-nephews; two grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.