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John Beal (born January 20, in Santa Monica, California) is an American film composer working in Hollywood, California. John Beal is notable for composing the music for numerous hit television series, such as Vega$ and Eight is Enough, as an orchestral conductor, composer of movie trailer music, producer of movie trailers, posters and other creative marketing materials for the Hollywood motion picture industry, and for his service as the General Manager and Producer for the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra.
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Early life
John Beal was born in Santa Monica, California, raised in La Cañada Flintridge, California, graduated from John Muir High School (Pasadena, California), and attended San Diego State University and UCLA. He studied percussion with William Kraft, and Irv Cotler (drummer for Frank Sinatra), composition with Harry Partch scholar Danlee Mitchell, and film scoring with Dominic Frontiere, George Duning and Earle Hagen. In his early film career, and like many of the young composers of the day, he ghost wrote the scores for numerous major motion pictures and hit television shows.
Career
Beal was a professional soloist in a boys choir at age 8 and a professional drummer on stage and in the recording studio by age 10. After his service with the USMC, he returned to Hollywood as a musical director and arranger with recording stars Olivia Newton-John (in her U.S. debut), B. B. King, Gladys Knight, Johnny Mathis, and for many TV variety shows ranging from Ed Sullivan to The Carpenters Make Your Own Kind of Music and John Wayne's Emmy Award-winning Sing Out Sweet Land, to The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson. He composed original music for numerous hit television series, including Vega$ with Robert Urich, Eight is Enough with Dick Van Patten and Betty Buckley, Happy Days with Ron Howard and Henry Winkler, Laverne & Shirley with Penny Marshall and Cindy Williams, Goodtime Girls with Annie Potts and Georgia Engel, Legmen with Bruce Greenwood and John Terlesky, and Chicago Story with Dennis Franz and Craig T. Nelson. His first feature films included Zero to Sixty starring Darren McGavin and Joan Collins, The Funhouse from director Tobe Hooper, Terror in the Aisles starring Donald Pleasance and Nancy Allen, and The Man with Bogart's Face starring Robert Sacchi, Franco Nero, Michelle Phillips and Olivia Hussey.
At the suggestion of Gary LeMel (President, Worldwide Music for Warner Bros.), Beal was tapped by Hollywood's marketing guru and "Godfather of Trailers," Andrew Kuehn of Kaleidoscope Films (Jaws and other major hit films) to work with him in the movie trailer industry.[1] Kuehn and Beal collaborated on the very inception of today's modern movie trailer format and Beal has long been recognized as the man who gave contemporary trailers their musical voice.[2] [3] Specializing in major studio theatrical marketing for over thirty years, his list of credits includes campaigns for such hit films as JFK, Titanic, The Matrix, Forrest Gump, The Last Samurai, Aladdin, the Star Wars trilogy, The Hunt for Red October, True Lies, In the Line of Fire, Patriot Games, The Mask of Zorro, Black Rain, Ghost, Finding Neverland, and hundreds more.[4] It is a fact that if you tally the box office results from Daily Variety, the financial success of film campaigns to which he has contributed original creative is literally measured in hundreds of billions of dollars.
Other projects
John Beal composed and arranged music for Disneyland and Walt Disney World (Orlando), and all of the music for Gentle Jungle and Enchanted Village theme parks. Beal composed and produced the music for commercials from Apple, NASDAQ, Ben & Jerry's, AMGEN, Dr. Pepper and many other major advertisers.
John Beal served as the General Manager and Producer of the Hollywood Symphony Orchestra for its debut concerts in the Los Angeles area, and continues as its television producer. Beal is President of Reeltime Creative [2], through which he currently consults in and produces motion picture creative advertising ranging from movie trailers to posters to web sites.
Activities
Beal is a former Governor of the Composers & Lyricists Guild of America (CLGA), National Trustee and Governor of the Los Angeles Chapter of National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences (Grammy Awards), an active member the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences (Emmy Awards) in both their Commercials and Music divisions, The Recording Academy Producers & Engineers Wing, is a Platinum member of the Society of Composers & Lyricists, ASCAP, and the American Society of Music Arrangers and Composers. While on a sabbatical, John Beal served as the Director of Planned Giving and Major Gifts for Julie Andrews and the Cecil B. DeMille family's Hathaway Children and Family Services and for many years volunteered as the Minor League Director for Toluca Lake Little League Baseball.
Military Service
Beal served in the United States Marine Corps and was trained as a specialist in Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Warfare. Beal fought in Vietnam and, over the course of more than 200 combat missions and 24 major counter-insurgency operations against the North Vietnamese Army, was decorated for heroism, bravery, valor and gallantry. One decoration (a Single Mission Air Medal with Bronze Star) for heroism came about in the rescue of a severely wounded reconnaissance team which was pinned down on a steep muddy hillside near Hamburger Hill in the A Shau Valley. Surrounded by enemy fire, the team was struggling to drag its wounded up the extremely steep and muddy mountain to an accessible area, but was taking fire from all sides and nearly out of strength. Due to his unwavering tenacity in the face of withering enemy fire, all five Marines were saved.[5] In contrast with his heroism under fire, Beal was decorated for his service to Vietnamese refugees who had fled mass genocide in the North. His unwavering dedication in helping to build schools, provide medical care and protect the civilians earned him a Navy Achievement Medal for Valor and recognition from the government of the Republic of South Vietnam.[6]
Select Movie Trailers
Some of the well-known movie trailers for which John Beal wrote original scores between 1977 and 2007 cover a wide range of styles: Titanic, We Were Soldiers, The Last Samurai, Finding Neverland, Star Wars, Aladdin, The Matrix, Mean Girls, Planet of the Apes, Batman Beyond, Alaska, Being John Malkovich, Black Beauty, Black Hawk Down, Black Rain, The Bodyguard, Braveheart, Casualties of War, Chaplin, Clear and Present Danger, Conspiracy Theory, Cruising, Dead Again, Donnie Brasco, Fallen, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, First Blood, Flight of the Intruder, Ghost, Hamlet, Heathers, The Hunt for Red October, JFK, The Mask, The Mask of Zorro, Medicine Man, Miracle on 34th Street (1994), Mortal Kombat, Mr. Mom, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Nothing in Common, Patriot Games, Quiz Show, Regarding Henry, Rising Sun, The Santa Clause, The Scarlet Letter, Steel Magnolias, The Toy, True Lies, Volcano, When a Man Loves a Woman, Working Girl, Payback, Tea with Mussolini, Police Academy, Indecent Proposal, Encino Man, Anaconda, Bram Stoker's Dracula, Nine to Five, Revenge, Bicentennial Man, Eraser.[7]
Articles and Books
- The Emerging Film Composer book by Richard Bellis, 2006 pp. 136-137
- Welcome to Heart Attack City' by John Beal, THE SCORE, Volume XII Number 4, Winter 1998 p. 1, (continues on p. 4) Online
- John Beal, Musical Chameleon November 11, 1998, interview by Helene San, Cinemusic.net
- The Modern Hollywood Composer: Interview with Composer John Beal, by Simon Barber, Liverpool Institute for the Performing Arts Interview
- The Art of Scoring Trailers: John Beal by Lukas Kendall, Part 1 - Film Score Monthly Magazine, issue #35, July 2003, pp 6-7, Part 2 continues in issue #36/37 Aug/September 1993, pp18-19 Online version
- Art of the Tease by Rick Sherwood, Hollywood Reporter August 25, 1992 pp. S-39-S-72
- Coming Attractions!: The two-minute film scores of John Beal by Randall D. Larson, "THE SCORE" Cinefantastique, June 1999, Volume 31, Number 6 p. 60
References
- ^ http://ajkfoundation.org/home.asp
- ^ [http://www.filmscoremonthly.com/features/beal.asp
- ^ *Art of the Tease by Rick Sherwood, Hollywood Reporter August 25, 1992 pp. S-39-S-72
- ^ [1]>
- ^ Commandant of the Marine Corps
- ^ Commandant of the Marine Corps
- ^ http://pro.imdb.com/name/nm0003395/otherworks
External links
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