Composer Fred Karlin won the 1971 Oscar for his song, For All We Know, from the film, Lovers and Other Strangers. "The Carpenters" went on to make the song a Top 10 hit. Karlin was nominated, with various collaborators, for three other Oscars, for songs in the films The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) and The Little Ark (1972), and for the score to The Baby Maker (1970). He won his Emmy in 1974, for the score for the television movie The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, and was nominated for an Emmy 10 other times.
Born in Chicago, IL, in 1937, Karlin played the trumpet. He graduated from Amherst College and worked as a composer and arranger for Benny Goodman. He is the author, along with Rayburn Wright and John Williams, of a textbook on film scoring called On the Track. Married and the father of a son and two daughters, Karlin died of cancer in May, 2004.
Representative Albums: "Westworld," "Swinging at the Opera," "Jazz Goes to Hollywood"
Biography
Prolific film and television composer Fred Karlin was born in Chicago in 1936. He began playing trumpet while in his teens and later studied jazz composition with William Russo, graduating cum laude from Amherst College in 1956 on the strength of his honors thesis "String Quartet No. 2." In 1958 Karlin relocated to New York City, working as a composer and arranger for a series of jazz acts, most notably Benny Goodman, for whom he arranged the Benny Goodman Plays ‘The Sound of Music' LP; he also wrote for film documentaries and television commercial jingles, and from 1960 to 1964 taught the jazz program at the summer Arrangers Workshop at the Eastman School of Music. In 1962 Karlin signed on as musical director of the Meg Welles Quintet, which recorded three albums for Columbia; in 1963, he and Welles also wed. Karlin wrote his first feature film score for Alan J. Pakula's 1967 effort Up the Down Staircase--he and his family relocated to Hollywood around the time he began work on the score for 1969's The Sterile Cuckoo, for which he earned his first Academy Award nomination with the song "Come Saturday Morning," later a pop hit for the Sandpipers. Karlin won the Oscar for 1971's "For All We Know," from the film Lovers and Other Strangers--a pop smash for the Carpenters, the song has since emerged as a modern standard. He earned his final Oscar nomination for "Come Follow Me," from 1972's The Little Ark--the next year generated perhaps his most popular film score, for the cult sci-fi classic Westworld. In 1974, he earned television's Emmy for Best Score for his work on The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. In all, Karlin scored over 30 features and in excess of 100 television movies and miniseries--he also penned the occasional TV theme song, including 1977's The Man from Atlantis, and earned 11 Emmy nominations in addition to his four Oscar bids. With friend and mentor Rayburn Wright, Karlin co-wrote the 1990 book On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring, followed four years later by Listening to Movies: The Film Lover's Guide to Film Music. He and wife Meg also founded the nonprofit Historical Institute of American Music. Karlin died of cancer on March 26, 2004 at the age of 67. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Music Guide
Career Highlights: The Marva Collins Story, Death Be Not Proud, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
First Major Screen Credit: The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957)
Biography
A prolific film composer who staked his claim on both the small screen and the silver screen after winning an Emmy for his score to The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman and an Oscar (which he shared with lyricists Robb Royer and James Griffin) for his work on the 1970 comedy Lovers and Other Strangers, Fred Karlin penned the music for well over 100 films in his productive 30-year career. A native of Chicago who took to the trumpet in his early teens, Karlin studied jazz composition alongside Bill Russo before enrolling in Amherst College shortly thereafter. Subsequently working in New York City, the emerging talent arranged for Benny Goodman, among other music notables, with celluloid work following when Karlin began composing music for documentaries and television commercials. Karlin's personal and professional lives collided when he wed Meg Welles in 1963 (he had been serving as musical director for Welles' chamber jazz quintet), and the couple moved to Los Angeles to find film work a few short years after exchanging marriage vows. Of course, there was no lack of film work in Hollywood for a composer of Karlin's caliber, and in 1967, he kicked off his successful cinematic career with the score to the Robert Mulligan drama Up the Down Staircase. An Oscar nomination for The Sterile Cuckoo (1969) was quick to follow, with a double nomination for both The Baby Maker and Lovers and Other Strangers virtually ensuring his win the following year. Karlin's numerous Emmy nominations include such efforts as Minstrel Man, Dadah Is Death, and Survive the Savage Sea. In his later years, Karlin worked almost exclusively on the small screen, remaining very active throughout the 1980s and into the early '90s. In addition to his career in film, Karlin also taught a film-scoring workshop in the 1990s and penned On the Track: A Guide to Contemporary Film Scoring. On March 26, 2004, Fred Karlin died of cancer in Culver City, CA. He was 67. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
