26 Facts About Shirley Walker

Shirley Anne Walker was an American film and television composer and conductor.

Shirley Walker was one of the few female film score composers working in Hollywood during her career.

Shirley Walker often wrote her film scores entirely by hand, and always orchestrated and conducted her own scores by herself.

Shirley Walker won two Emmy Awards during her career, while the ASCAP Shirley Walker Award was created in her honor in 2014.

Shirley Walker was born in Napa, California on April 10,1945.

Shirley Walker was born to her father who was an industrial patternmaker for the Navy and her mother gave piano lessons while raising five children.

Shirley Walker grew up in Napa Valley and Contra Costa County.

Shirley Walker was a piano soloist with the San Francisco Symphony during high school, and later attended San Francisco State University on a piano scholarship.

Shirley Walker studied music composition under Roger Nixon and piano studies with Harald Logan of Berkeley, California.

However, what made Shirley Walker stand out among her peers was her ability to work with an orchestra and this talent would come to shape many beloved film scores.

Shirley Walker reportedly knew exactly how music worked, how it was written, and how it could be played by musicians.

Shirley Walker has the distinction of being the first woman to have composed an entire symphonic score, which she orchestrated and conducted alone.

Shirley Walker served as composer for numerous productions, including films such as Willard, the first three Final Destination installments, and television series such as Falcon Crest, Space: Above and Beyond, China Beach, and The Flash.

The Flash was one of many collaborations Shirley Walker did with composer Danny Elfman.

Shirley Walker served as composer for Batman: The Animated Series, Superman: The Animated Series, The New Batman Adventures, and Batman Beyond ; setting a standard for the musical tone of the DC Animated Universe.

Shirley Walker worked with Danny Elfman on many DC Comics works.

Shirley Walker served as conductor for the film Batman, wrote most of the scores for Batman: The Animated Series using a theme inspired by Elfman's, scored the pilot and all the episodes of The Flash and scored episodes of Batman Beyond with Michael McCuistion, Lolita Ritmanis and Kristopher Carter.

Elfman composed the main theme and Shirley Walker wrote additional themes.

Shirley Walker would continue to compose and shepherd the music of sequel series The New Batman Adventures and Batman Beyond.

Shirley Walker even returned to Batman on film one last time in 1995 with uncredited orchestration on Batman Forever.

Shirley Walker was a key part of bringing characters from DC Comics to life on screen.

Just recently after completing work on the feature Black Christmas and after finishing the first three scores of the Final Destination horror series, Shirley Walker died November 30,2006 from complications following a stroke in Reno, Nevada.

Shirley Walker had an incredible impact not only on the films and television shows she worked on, but on the musicians she worked with.

Shirley Walker agreed but quietly told the orchestra how she felt this was ridiculous, that she didn't want them wearing out, and she had a different plan.

Shirley Walker utilized this, and knowing that the orchestra couldn't actually be heard unless recording was in progress, she mimed conducting, waving her arms, pointing to the score, and completely putting on an act for the producers, but all the while telling jokes and keeping things light with the musicians.

Shirley Walker was considered by some to be one of the industry's most unsung talents, often overlooked in popular media even with the strides she made for women composers and her huge influence in the film industry, such as being one of the first women to receive sole composing credit on a Hollywood studio picture, on Memoirs of an Invisible Man in 1992.