George Duning
Encyclopedia
George Duning was an American
musician
and film composer
. He was born in Richmond, Indiana
and educated in Cincinnati, Ohio
at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where his mentor was Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
.
band, later arranging most of the music for Kyser's popular Kollege of Musical Knowledge radio program. It was during the Kyser band's appearance in Carolina Moon
(1944) that Duning's work was noticed, leading to a Columbia
contract. Duning joined the Navy in 1942 and served as a conductor and arranger with Armed Forces Radio.
signed Duning to Columbia Pictures
in 1946, where he worked almost exclusively through the early 1960s, collaborating most often with director Richard Quine
.
Prominent Duning scores are two of the best examples of western genre - the original 3:10 to Yuma, and Cowboy - and those he composed for films as diverse as My Sister Eileen
, Picnic, The World of Suzie Wong
, Me and the Colonel
, The Devil at Four O'Clock, Bell, Book, and Candle
, Any Wednesday
, and Toys in the Attic
.
Duning shared music adaptation credit with Nelson Riddle
for the highly successful 1957 film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hart
gem Pal Joey
starring Frank Sinatra
and Rita Hayworth
.
During his career, Duning worked on more than 300 film and television scores. His notable television series include Tightrope
, Star Trek
, The Big Valley
and Naked City
.
The quality of his work remained consistently and remarkably high in any medium. His last feature film was The Man with Bogart's Face
in 1980, and he retired in 1981. Nominated five times for an Academy Award, Duning never won.
Duning was an active citizen of the music industry, serving on the ASCAP Board of Directors from 1972 to 1985, and as ASCAP Vice President from 1978 to 1979. He also served on the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
and was active in numerous other music industry organizations. In addition to his Academy Award nominations, Duning was also honored with awards from the Society for the Preservation of Film Music, Downbeat Magazine, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and his home state of Indiana (1993 Indiana Composer of the Year).
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
and film composer
Composer
A composer is a person who creates music, either by musical notation or oral tradition, for interpretation and performance, or through direct manipulation of sonic material through electronic media...
. He was born in Richmond, Indiana
Richmond, Indiana
Richmond is a city largely within Wayne Township, Wayne County, in east central Indiana, United States, which borders Ohio. The city also includes the Richmond Municipal Airport, which is in Boston Township and separated from the rest of the city...
and educated in Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati, Ohio
Cincinnati is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio. Cincinnati is the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located to north of the Ohio River at the Ohio-Kentucky border, near Indiana. The population within city limits is 296,943 according to the 2010 census, making it Ohio's...
at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music, where his mentor was Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco
Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco was an Italian composer. He was known as one of the foremost guitar composers in the twentieth century with almost one hundred compositions for that instrument. In 1939 he migrated to the United States and became a film composer for some 200 Hollywood movies for the next...
.
Early career
During his early 20s played trumpet and piano for the Kay KyserKay Kyser
James Kern Kyser was a popular bandleader and radio personality of the 1930s and 1940s.-Early years:He was born in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, the son of pharmacists Paul Bynum Kyser and Emily Royster Kyser. Editor Vermont C. Royster was his cousin...
band, later arranging most of the music for Kyser's popular Kollege of Musical Knowledge radio program. It was during the Kyser band's appearance in Carolina Moon
Carolina Moon
"Carolina Moon" is a popular song written by Joe Burke and Benny Davis. The song was a 1928 hit for crooner Gene Austin, when it charted for 14 weeks, staying at number one for 7 weeks....
(1944) that Duning's work was noticed, leading to a Columbia
Columbia Records
Columbia Records is an American record label, owned by Japan's Sony Music Entertainment, operating under the Columbia Music Group with Aware Records. It was founded in 1888, evolving from an earlier enterprise, the American Graphophone Company — successor to the Volta Graphophone Company...
contract. Duning joined the Navy in 1942 and served as a conductor and arranger with Armed Forces Radio.
Film career
Morris StoloffMorris Stoloff
Morris Stoloff was a musical composer.Stoloff worked as a music director at Columbia Pictures from 1936 to 1962...
signed Duning to Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures Industries, Inc. is an American film production and distribution company. Columbia Pictures now forms part of the Columbia TriStar Motion Picture Group, owned by Sony Pictures Entertainment, a subsidiary of the Japanese conglomerate Sony. It is one of the leading film companies...
in 1946, where he worked almost exclusively through the early 1960s, collaborating most often with director Richard Quine
Richard Quine
Richard Quine was an American stage, film, and radio actor and film director.Quine was born in Detroit. He made his Broadway debut in the Jerome Kern/Oscar Hammerstein II musical Very Warm for May in 1939 and appeared in My Sister Eileen the following year...
.
Prominent Duning scores are two of the best examples of western genre - the original 3:10 to Yuma, and Cowboy - and those he composed for films as diverse as My Sister Eileen
My Sister Eileen (1955 film)
My Sister Eileen is a 1955 American CinemaScope musical film directed by Richard Quine. It stars Janet Leigh, Betty Garrett and Jack Lemmon....
, Picnic, The World of Suzie Wong
The World of Suzie Wong (film)
The World of Suzie Wong is a 1960 British-American romantic drama film directed by Richard Quine. The screenplay by John Patrick was adapted from the stage play by Paul Osborn, which was based on the novel of the same title by Richard Mason...
, Me and the Colonel
Me and the Colonel
Me and the Colonel is a 1958 film based on the play "Jacobowsky und der Oberst" by Franz Werfel. It was directed by Peter Glenville and stars Danny Kaye, Curd Jürgens and Akim Tamiroff....
, The Devil at Four O'Clock, Bell, Book, and Candle
Bell, book, and candle
The phrase "bell, book, and candle" refers to a method of excommunication for one who had committed a particularly grievous sin. Apparently introduced around the late 9th century, the practice was once used by the Catholic Church; in modern times, a simple pronouncement is made...
, Any Wednesday
Any Wednesday
Any Wednesday is a 1966 comedy film directed by Robert Ellis Miller, starring Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, and Dean Jones. The story centers around a Manhattan woman who is trying to decide between two suitors on the day of her 30th birthday.On August 18, 2009, Warner Brothers released the movie...
, and Toys in the Attic
Toys in the Attic (film)
Toys in the Attic is a 1963 American drama film starring Dean Martin, Geraldine Page, Yvette Mimieux, Gene Tierney and Wendy Hiller. The film was directed by George Roy Hill and is based on a Tony Award-winning play by Lillian Hellman...
.
Duning shared music adaptation credit with Nelson Riddle
Nelson Riddle
Nelson Smock Riddle, Jr. was an American arranger, composer, bandleader and orchestrator whose career stretched from the late 1940s to the mid 1980s...
for the highly successful 1957 film adaptation of the Rodgers and Hart
Rodgers and Hart
Rodgers and Hart were an American songwriting partnership of composer Richard Rodgers and the lyricist Lorenz Hart...
gem Pal Joey
Pal Joey (film)
Pal Joey is a 1957 film, loosely adapted from the musical play of the same name, and starring Rita Hayworth, Frank Sinatra, and Kim Novak. Jo Ann Greer sang for Hayworth, as she had done previously in Affair in Trinidad and Miss Sadie Thompson. Kim Novak's singing voice was dubbed by Trudy Erwin...
starring Frank Sinatra
Frank Sinatra
Francis Albert "Frank" Sinatra was an American singer and actor.Beginning his musical career in the swing era with Harry James and Tommy Dorsey, Sinatra became an unprecedentedly successful solo artist in the early to mid-1940s, after being signed to Columbia Records in 1943. Being the idol of the...
and Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth
Rita Hayworth was an American film actress and dancer who attained fame during the 1940s as one of the era's top stars...
.
During his career, Duning worked on more than 300 film and television scores. His notable television series include Tightrope
Tightrope (TV series)
Tightrope is an American crime drama series that aired on CBS from September 1959 to September 1960. Produced by Russell Rouse and Clarence Greene in association with Screen Gems, the series stars Mike Connors as an undercover agent named "Nick" who was assigned to infiltrate criminal gangs...
, Star Trek
Star Trek
Star Trek is an American science fiction entertainment franchise created by Gene Roddenberry. The core of Star Trek is its six television series: The Original Series, The Animated Series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Voyager, and Enterprise...
, The Big Valley
The Big Valley
The Big Valley is an American television Western which ran on ABC from September 15, 1965, to May 19, 1969, which starred Barbara Stanwyck, as a California widowed mother. It was created by A.I. Bezzerides and Louis F. Edelman...
and Naked City
Naked City (TV series)
Naked City is a police drama series which aired from 1958 to 1963 on the ABC television network. It was inspired by the 1948 motion picture of the same name, and mimics its dramatic "semi-documentary" format....
.
The quality of his work remained consistently and remarkably high in any medium. His last feature film was The Man with Bogart's Face
The Man with Bogart's Face
The Man with Bogart's Face is a 1980 comedy film, released by 20th Century Fox and based on a novel of the same name. Andrew J...
in 1980, and he retired in 1981. Nominated five times for an Academy Award, Duning never won.
Duning was an active citizen of the music industry, serving on the ASCAP Board of Directors from 1972 to 1985, and as ASCAP Vice President from 1978 to 1979. He also served on the Board of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is a professional honorary organization dedicated to the advancement of the arts and sciences of motion pictures...
and was active in numerous other music industry organizations. In addition to his Academy Award nominations, Duning was also honored with awards from the Society for the Preservation of Film Music, Downbeat Magazine, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association and his home state of Indiana (1993 Indiana Composer of the Year).
Academy Award nominations
- The Eddy Duchin StoryThe Eddy Duchin StoryThe Eddy Duchin Story is a 1956 biopic of band leader and pianist Eddy Duchin. It was directed by George Sidney-helmed film, written by Samuel A. Taylor, and starred Tyrone Power and Kim Novak. The musical soundtrack recording, imitating Duchin's style, was performed by pianist Carmen Cavallaro....
- Picnic
- From Here to EternityFrom Here to EternityFrom Here to Eternity is a 1953 drama film directed by Fred Zinnemann and based on the novel of the same name by James Jones. It deals with the troubles of soldiers, played by Burt Lancaster, Montgomery Clift, Frank Sinatra and Ernest Borgnine stationed on Hawaii in the months leading up to the...
- No Sad Songs for Me
- Jolson Sings AgainJolson Sings AgainJolson Sings Again is the 1949 film sequel to The Jolson Story, both of which cover the life of singer Al Jolson.-Synopsis:In this follow-up to The Jolson Story, we pick up the singer's career just as he has returned to the stage after a premature retirement. But his wife has left him and the...
Golden Globes nominations
- The World of Suzie WongThe World of Suzie Wong (film)The World of Suzie Wong is a 1960 British-American romantic drama film directed by Richard Quine. The screenplay by John Patrick was adapted from the stage play by Paul Osborn, which was based on the novel of the same title by Richard Mason...
- All the King's MenAll the King's MenAll the King's Men is a novel by Robert Penn Warren first published in 1946. Its title is drawn from the nursery rhyme Humpty Dumpty. In 1947 Warren won the Pulitzer Prize for All the King's Men....
- Cry for HappyCry for HappyCry for Happy is a 1961 colour movie directed by George Marshall.-Plot:A Navy photographer and his three-man team occupy a Tokyo geisha house during the Korean War. Though off-limits,...
(best song)