RH

Ray Heindorf

Actor, Composer, Additional Credits
Born August 25, 1908Died February 3, 1980 (71 years)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Ray Heindorf (August 25, 1908 – February 3, 1980) was an American songwriter, composer, conductor, and arranger.

Born in Haverstraw, New York, Heindorf worked as a pianist in a movie house in Mechanicville in his early teens. In 1928, he moved to New York City, where he worked as a musical arranger before heading to Hollywood. He gained his first job as an orchestrator at MGM, where he worked on Hollywood Revue of 1929, and subsequently went on the road playing piano for Lupe Vélez.

After completing this engagement, he joined Warner Bros., composing and/or arranging and conducting music exclusively for the studio for nearly forty years. Heindorf, along with Georgie Stoll at MGM, were jazz aficionados well known in the black entertainment community for employing minority musicians in their studio music departments.

He undertook the musical direction of Judy Garland's comeback film A Star is Born (1954) and made a cameo appearance as himself in the premiere party sequence where Jack Carson's character congratulates him on a great score.

Among Heindorf's other screen credits are 42nd Street, Gold Diggers of 1935, The Great Lie, Knute Rockne All American, Kings Row, Night and Day, Tea for Two, A Streetcar Named Desire, The Jazz Singer, No Time for Sergeants, The Helen Morgan Story, Marjorie Morningstar, Damn Yankees, Auntie Mame, Finian's Rainbow, and his final musical for Jack L. Warner, 1776.

Between 1943 and 1969 he was nominated for eighteen Academy Awards, 17 nominations for Best Score and 1 nomination for Best Song. Heindorf won three, in the category of Best Score of a Musical, for Yankee Doodle Dandy, This is the Army, and The Music Man. His wins for the former two films made him the first to accomplish consecutive wins in a musical category.

Heindorf died in Tarzana, California, aged 71, and reputedly was buried with his favorite conducting baton.
Movies & Shows on Plex
  • The Pajama Game
  • The Kennel Murder Case
  • Wonder Man
  • Arrowsmith
  • The Big Trees
  • Blowing Wild
  • Up in Arms
Known For
  • The Music Man
  • A Star Is Born
  • Yankee Doodle Dandy
  • Damn Yankees
  • Calamity Jane
  • Wonder Man
  • Romance on the High Seas
  • Rhapsody in Blue
  • Up in Arms
  • Finian's Rainbow
  • The West Point Story
  • The Jazz Singer

Filmography

1954
A Star Is Born · as Movie Premiere Attendee (uncredited)
1953
She's Back on Broadway · as Orchestra Leader
1951
Lullaby of Broadway · as Ship's Orchestra Leader
1951
I'll See You in My Dreams · as Orchestra Leader At Kahn Benefit (uncredited)
1950
Young Man with a Horn · as Orchestra Leader
1949
It's a Great Feeling · as Ray Heindorf (uncredited)
1947
My Wild Irish Rose · as Orchestra Leader In Finale

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