Photo: Chris Baer/
© Disney/Pixar
Moving effortlessly from drama ("Oscar and Lucinda" - SK 60088) to sharp satire to period classics ("Little Women" - SK 66922), composer Thomas Newman has built upon an extraordinary family tradition in Hollywood. The youngest son of the legendary Alfred Newman (whose motto theme for Twentieth Century Fox remains a fixed icon in the city of moving images), Thomas Newman has laid the foundation for his own musical legacy with an unusually varied body of work that has earned the praise of filmmakers and critics alike. In 1994, he was the only double nominee in the year's Oscar® race, receiving nominations for Best Original Score for his work on both LITTLE WOMEN and THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION.
Newman studied composition and orchestration at USC with professors Frederick Lesemann and noted film composer David Raskin (LAURA), and privately with composer George Tremblay; he completed his academic work at Yale, studying with Jacob Druckman, Bruce MacCombie and Robert Moore. But it was another composer who Newman says served as his greatest mentor early on: Stephen Sondheim, who championed one of Newman's earliest works, a musical theatre piece entitled Three Mean Fairy Tales.
Newman's score for LITTLE WOMEN is indicative of his approach to film composition, drawing elements not only from the story itself, but from the world as portrayed by the director. In LITTLE WOMEN, Newman seamlessly incorporates authentic nineteenth-century American popular music with an orchestral score that recalls the tenderness and grandeur of such classic American compositions as Aaron Copland's "Our Town" and Bernard Herrman's "The Magnificent Ambersons".
His soundtrack for OSCAR AND LUCINDA, also available from Sony Classical, is similarly evocative of the story, its place, and its time. Portions of the score were later included in the Random House AudioBook release of Oscar and Lucinda, which featured a reading by Ralph Fiennes.
Some of Newman's other notable scoring credits include RECKLESS and REVENGE OF THE NERDS (both 1984), DESPERATELY SEEKING SUSAN and THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE (both 1985), GUNG HO and JUMPIN' JACK FLASH (both 1986), THE LOST BOYS (1987), THE GREAT OUTDOORS (1988), COOKIE (1989), MEN DON'T LEAVE (1990), FRIED GREEN TOMATOES (1991), THE PLAYER and SCENT OF A WOMAN (both 1992), UNSTRUNG HEROES and HOW TO MAKE AN AMERICAN QUILT (both 1995), UP CLOSE & PERSONAL, PHENOMENON, AMERICAN BUFFALO and THE PEOPLE vs. LARRY FLYNT (all 1996), THE HORSE WHISPERER and MEET JOE BLACK (both 1998), THREE KINGS, AMERICAN BEAUTY and THE GREEN MILE (all 1999), ERIN BROCKOVICH and PAY IT FORWARD (both 2000), IN THE BEDROOM (2001), ROAD TO PERDITION, "Six Feet Under" (TV series), THE SALTON SEA and WHITE OLEANDER (all 2002), "Angels in America" (mini-series) and FINDING NEMO (both 2003), LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS (2004), CINDERELLA MAN, LA FEMME DANS LA CHAMBRE and JARHEAD (all 2005), LITTLE CHILDREN and THE GOOD GERMAN (both 2006), NOTHING IS PRIVATE (2007), and WALL·E and REVOLUTIONARY ROAD (both 2008).
From 1994 to 2006, he scored at least one Oscar-nominated film every year. Newman lives in the house he grew up in (designed by Lloyd Wright, the son of Frank Lloyd Wright) with his wife Ann Marie; they have three children. He writes in the same home studio used by his father.
Nominated for Achievement in Music - Original Score 1994: THE SHAWSHANK REDEMPTION
Nominated for Achievement in Music - Original Score 1994: LITTLE WOMEN
Nominated for Achievement in Music - Original Musical or Comedy Score 1995: UNSTRUNG HEROES
Nominated for Achievement in Music - Original Score 1999: AMERICAN BEAUTY
Nominated for Achievement in Music (Original Score) 2002: ROAD TO PERDITION
Nominated for Music (Original Score) 2003: FINDING NEMO
Nominated for Music (Score) 2004: LEMONY SNICKET'S A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS
Nominated for Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) 2006: THE GOOD GERMAN
8 nominations