Born Jerrald Goldsmith in Los Angeles, CA. He studied piano with Jacob Gimpel and composition, theory and counterpoint with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. He also attended classes in film composition given by Miklos Rozsa at the Univeristy of Southern California. In 1950, he was employed as a clerk typist in the music department at CBS. Here he was given his first embryonic assignments as a composer for radio shows such as "Romance" and "CBS Radio Workshop." He wrote one score a week for these shows which were performed live on transmission. He stayed with CBS until 1960, having already scored "The Twilight Zone." He was hired by Revue Studios to score their "Thriller" series. It was here that he met the influential film composer Alfred Newman who hired Goldsmith to score the film LONELY ARE THE BRAVE (1963), his first major feature film score. An experimentalist, Goldsmith constantly pushed forward the bounds of film music: PLANET OF THE APES (1968) included horns blown without mouthpieces and a bass clarinetist fingering the notes but not blowing. Goldsmith was unafraid to use the wide variety of electronic sounds and instruments which became available, although he did not use them for their own sake. A frequent composer of themes and fanfares for the Annual Academy Awards Ceremonies, some of his recent film scoring credits include STAR TREK: INSURRECTION (1998), THE MUMMY and THE HAUNTING (both 1999), HOLLOW MAN (2000), ALONG CAME A SPIDER (2001), LOONEY TUNES: BACK IN ACTION and THE GAME OF THEIR LIVES (both 2003) and PICASSO AT THE LAPIN AGILE (2004). Goldsmith died in his sleep in Beverly Hills, CA, in 2004 after a long battle with cancer. One of his six children is film and TV music composer Joel Goldsmith (b. 1957).

Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Music Score Substantially Original) 1962: FREUD  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Music Score Substantially Original) 1965: A PATCH OF BLUE  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Original Music Score) 1966: THE SAND PEBBLES  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score for a Motion Picture Not a Musical) 1968: PLANET OF THE APES  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1970: PATTON  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Dramatic Score) 1973: PAPILLON  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Dramatic Score) 1974:  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1975: THE WIND AND THE LION  Nominated for Music Best Song 1976: THE OMEN "Ave Satani" - Music & Lyrics  Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1976: THE OMEN  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1978: THE BOYS FROM BRAZIL  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1979: STAR TREK - THE MOTION PICTURE  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1982: POLTERGEIST  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Best Original Score) 1983: UNDER FIRE  Nominated for Music Scoring Awards (Original Music Score) 1986: HOOSIERS  Nominated for Best Achievement in Music (Original Score) 1992: BASIC INSTINCT  Nominated for Best Achievement in Music (Original Dramatic Score) 1997: L.A. CONFIDENTIAL  Nominated for Best Achievement in Music (Original Musical or Comedy Score) 1998: MULAN - Orchestral Score 18 nominations, 1 Award