Georges Delerue was a French composer who composed over 350 scores for cinema and television.
21 Facts About Georges Delerue
2.
Georges Delerue was nominated for four additional Academy Awards for Anne of the Thousand Days, The Day of the Dolphin, Julia, and Agnes of God, four additional Cesar Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, and one Genie Award for Black Robe.
3.
Georges Delerue was named Commander of Arts and Letters, one of France's highest honours.
4.
Georges Delerue was raised in a musical household; his grandfather led an amateur chorale group and his mother sang and played piano at family gatherings.
5.
Georges Delerue continued playing clarinet with local bands, eventually transitioning to piano under the instruction of Madame Picavet-Bacquart.
6.
Georges Delerue studied Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, and Grieg, and was particularly inspired by Richard Strauss.
7.
In 1945, following his studies at the Roubaix conservatory, Georges Delerue was accepted into the Conservatoire de Paris, where he studied fugue with Simone Ple-Caussade and composition with Henri Busser.
8.
That year at the Theater Festival of Avignon, Georges Delerue conducted a performance of Scheherazade.
9.
Georges Delerue began writing stage music during the late 1940s, including for the Theatre National Populaire, Comedie-Francaise and the company of Jean-Louis Barrault.
10.
Georges Delerue became friends with Maurice Jarre and Pierre Boulez.
11.
Georges Delerue began collaborating with Boris Vian on a number of projects during this time, including theatrical adaptations of The Snow Knight and The Builders of Empire, an oratorio A Regrettable Incident, and a ballet The Barker.
12.
Georges Delerue's career was diverse and he composed frequently for major art house directors, most often Francois Truffaut, but for Jean-Luc Godard's film Contempt, and for Alain Resnais, Louis Malle, and Bernardo Bertolucci, besides later working on several Hollywood productions, including Oliver Stone's Platoon and Salvador.
13.
Georges Delerue composed the music for Flemming Flindt's ballet, Enetime, based on Ionesco's play, La Lecon.
14.
Georges Delerue made cameo appearances in La nuit americaine and Les deux anglaises et le continent.
15.
Georges Delerue composed the music for five of the films made by the noted British director Jack Clayton.
16.
Georges Delerue insisted on being allowed to orchestrate and conduct himself in order to polish every detail.
17.
Georges Delerue had a great talent for melody and for creating surrounding overtones which encapsulated the spirit of the movies on which he collaborated, enhancing them often beyond the expectations of their directors.
18.
Georges Delerue died on 20 March 1992 from a heart attack in Los Angeles, eight days after his 67th birthday, just after recording the last cue for the soundtrack to Rich in Love.
19.
Georges Delerue is buried in Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.
20.
Georges Delerue left behind his wife, Colette Delerue, whom he married in 1984, and his daughter Claire from an earlier marriage.
21.
Georges Delerue composed the musical scores for 351 feature films, television movies, television series, documentaries, and short films.