Born in India, the son of a British army officer, but was moved to England as a small child for his health. He was educated at Wellington College, where the future actor Christopher Lee was a classmate. Fortuitously, because Lee was to star in scores of horror films for Hammer Studios, for which James Bernard wrote the scores. Bernard's first major break as a composer was at the age of 17 when he met Benjamin Britten and Peter Pears, for whom Bernard later wrote a song cycle. Some of his notable film scores include THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT (1955), X THE UNKNOWN (1956), THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN (1957), DRACULA (1958), THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES (1959), THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY (1960), THE TERROR OF THE TONGS (1961), THE DAMNED (1962), THE KISS OF THE VAMPIRE (1963), THE GORGON (1964), SHE (1965), DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS (1966), FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN (1967), DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968), FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED (1969), TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA and SCARS OF DRACULA (both 1970), FRANKENSTEIN AND THE MONSTER FROM HELL and THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES (both 1974), WITCHING TIME (1980), MURDER ELITE (1985) and GREEN FINGERS (2000). His only effort at writing, the story for SEVEN DAYS TO NOON (1951), netted him an Academy Award.  Writing (Motion Picture Story) 1951: SEVEN DAYS TO NOON (w. Paul Dehn) 1 nomination, 1 Award