Nathan Scott (composer)
Encyclopedia
Nathan Scott was an American
film score
and television
composer
. He composed, conducted, arranged and orchestrated more than 850 separate credits in television, as well as the music for more than 100 films. His credits in television included Lassie
, The Twilight Zone
and Dragnet
, while his film credits included the film score for Wake of the Red Witch
.
. He received a bachelor's degree
in music from the University of California, Berkeley
in 1939. He began working in radio broadcasting after graduation.
music director
for Blue Network
, which was owned by NBC
, in 1942. However, he was soon drafted into the United States Army
during World War II
, where wrote music and played the trombone
for the Air Transport Command Band, based in Long Beach, California. He later conducted shows on the Armed Forces Radio Service such as Command Performance
.
Following the end of World War II, Scott was hired by Republic Pictures
as a staff composer for six years, beginning in 1946. He composed, conducted or orchestrated "dozens" of film score
s for Republic Pictures, including Heart of the Rockies and Wake of the Red Witch
, starring John Wayne
. Though much of his career would focus on scoring for television, his later film credits at other film studios included MGM's 1961 X-15
and Montana Belle
, which was released by RKO Pictures
in 1953.
Scott left Republic Pictures in 1952. Beginning in the early 1950s, Scott spent most of his career composing for television. Starting in 1952, Scott orchestrated and arranged music for Dragnet
s original composer, Walter Schumann
. Scott did the arrangements for all Dragnet episodes, until the show's series finale
in 1959. Scott also composed the score for approximately six Dragnet episodes.
Scott wrote the theme music for the 1964 dramatic series, Slattery's People
, which aired during the 1964-1965 television season. He also worked on the Twilight Zone
for two episodes, scoring the music for A Stop at Willoughby
in 1960.
In 1963, Scott began working on the classic television series, Lassie
. He scored virtually all the episodes of Lassie (except for 4) until the show ended its run in 1974. His 1950s and 1960s television credits included episodes of My Three Sons
, Steve Canyon
, The Untouchables
, Rawhide
and Wagon Train
.
Scott orchestrated for a number of other prominent television and film composers beginning in the 1970s, including Quincy Jones
on The Color Purple
, his son Tom Scott
in Hanky Panky
and Stu Phillips for The Fall Guy
and Battlestar Galatica.
Nathan Scott died of natural causes at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, on February 27, 2010, at the age of 94. He was survived by his son, Grammy-winning saxophonist Tom Scott
; his second wife, Frances McCune Scott; his daughter, Linda Colley; his brother and two grandchildren. His first wife, Margery, died in 1995.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
and television
Television
Television is a telecommunication medium for transmitting and receiving moving images that can be monochrome or colored, with accompanying sound...
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 composed, conducted, arranged and orchestrated more than 850 separate credits in television, as well as the music for more than 100 films. His credits in television included Lassie
Lassie
Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...
, The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone
The Twilight Zone is an American television anthology series created by Rod Serling. Each episode is a mixture of self-contained drama, psychological thriller, fantasy, science fiction, suspense, or horror, often concluding with a macabre or unexpected twist...
and Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
, while his film credits included the film score for Wake of the Red Witch
Wake of the Red Witch
Wake of the Red Witch is a 1948 drama film from Republic Pictures starring John Wayne and Gail Russell, produced by Edmund Grainger, and based upon the novel by Garland Roark...
.
Early life
Scott was born in Salinas, CaliforniaSalinas, California
Salinas is the county seat and the largest municipality of Monterey County, California. Salinas is located east-southeast of the mouth of the Salinas River, at an elevation of about 52 feet above sea level. The population was 150,441 at the 2010 census...
. He received a bachelor's degree
Bachelor's degree
A bachelor's degree is usually an academic degree awarded for an undergraduate course or major that generally lasts for three or four years, but can range anywhere from two to six years depending on the region of the world...
in music from the University of California, Berkeley
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley , is a teaching and research university established in 1868 and located in Berkeley, California, USA...
in 1939. He began working in radio broadcasting after graduation.
Career
Scott was named the West CoastWest Coast of the United States
West Coast or Pacific Coast are terms for the westernmost coastal states of the United States. The term most often refers to the states of California, Oregon, and Washington. Although not part of the contiguous United States, Alaska and Hawaii do border the Pacific Ocean but can't be included in...
music director
Music director
A music director may be the director of an orchestra, the director of music for a film, the director of music at a radio station, the head of the music department in a school, the co-ordinator of the musical ensembles in a university or college , the head bandmaster of a military band, the head...
for Blue Network
Blue Network
The Blue Network, and its immediate predecessor, the NBC Blue Network, were the on-air names of an American radio production and distribution service from 1927 to 1945...
, which was owned by NBC
NBC
The National Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network and former radio network headquartered in the GE Building in New York City's Rockefeller Center with additional major offices near Los Angeles and in Chicago...
, in 1942. However, he was soon drafted into the United States Army
United States Army
The United States Army is the main branch of the United States Armed Forces responsible for land-based military operations. It is the largest and oldest established branch of the U.S. military, and is one of seven U.S. uniformed services...
during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, where wrote music and played the trombone
Trombone
The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
for the Air Transport Command Band, based in Long Beach, California. He later conducted shows on the Armed Forces Radio Service such as Command Performance
Command Performance
Command Performance is a radio program which originally aired between 1942 and 1949. The program was broadcast on the Armed Forces Radio Network with a direct shortwave transmission to the troops overseas. It was not broadcast over domestic U.S...
.
Following the end of World War II, Scott was hired by Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures
Republic Pictures was an independent film production-distribution corporation with studio facilities, operating from 1934 through 1959, and was best known for specializing in westerns, movie serials and B films emphasizing mystery and action....
as a staff composer for six years, beginning in 1946. He composed, conducted or orchestrated "dozens" of film score
Film score
A film score is original music written specifically to accompany a film, forming part of the film's soundtrack, which also usually includes dialogue and sound effects...
s for Republic Pictures, including Heart of the Rockies and Wake of the Red Witch
Wake of the Red Witch
Wake of the Red Witch is a 1948 drama film from Republic Pictures starring John Wayne and Gail Russell, produced by Edmund Grainger, and based upon the novel by Garland Roark...
, starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
. Though much of his career would focus on scoring for television, his later film credits at other film studios included MGM's 1961 X-15
X-15 (film)
X-15 is a 1961 dramatic aviation film that presents a fictionalized account of the X-15 research rocket plane program, the test pilots who flew the aircraft and the associated NASA community that supported the program. X-15 starred David McLean, Charles Bronson, Mary Tyler Moore , Kenneth Tobey and...
and Montana Belle
Montana Belle
Montana Belle is a 1952 western film directed by Allan Dwan and starring Jane Russell. The story is a fictionalised biography of Montana outlaw Belle Starr.-Plot:...
, which was released by RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures
RKO Pictures is an American film production and distribution company. As RKO Radio Pictures Inc., it was one of the Big Five studios of Hollywood's Golden Age. The business was formed after the Keith-Albee-Orpheum theater chains and Joseph P...
in 1953.
Scott left Republic Pictures in 1952. Beginning in the early 1950s, Scott spent most of his career composing for television. Starting in 1952, Scott orchestrated and arranged music for Dragnet
Dragnet (series)
Dragnet is a radio and television crime drama about the cases of a dedicated Los Angeles police detective, Sergeant Joe Friday, and his partners...
s original composer, Walter Schumann
Walter Schumann
Walter Schumann was an American composer for film, television, and the theater. His notable works include the score for The Night of the Hunter and the Dragnet Theme...
. Scott did the arrangements for all Dragnet episodes, until the show's series finale
Series finale
A series finale refers to the last installment of a series with a narrative presented through mediums such as television, film and literature. In many Commonwealth countries, the term final episode is commonly used in regards to a television series...
in 1959. Scott also composed the score for approximately six Dragnet episodes.
Scott wrote the theme music for the 1964 dramatic series, Slattery's People
Slattery's People
Slattery's People is a 1964-1965 American television series about local politics starring Richard Crenna as title character James Slattery, a state legislator, co-starring Ed Asner and Tol Avery, and featuring Carroll O'Connor and Warren Oates in a couple of episodes each. James E. Moser was...
, which aired during the 1964-1965 television season. He also worked on the Twilight Zone
Twilight zone
-Television series and spinoffs:*The Twilight Zone, the anthology television series and its franchise:**The Twilight Zone , the 1959–1964 original television series***Twilight Zone: The Movie, a 1983 film based on the original series...
for two episodes, scoring the music for A Stop at Willoughby
A Stop at Willoughby
"A Stop at Willoughby" is an episode of the American television anthology series The Twilight Zone. Rod Serling cited this as his favorite story from the first season of the series.-Synopsis:...
in 1960.
In 1963, Scott began working on the classic television series, Lassie
Lassie
Lassie is a fictional collie dog character created by Eric Knight in a short story expanded to novel length called Lassie Come-Home. Published in 1940, the novel was filmed by MGM in 1943 as Lassie Come Home with a dog named Pal playing Lassie. Pal then appeared with the stage name "Lassie" in six...
. He scored virtually all the episodes of Lassie (except for 4) until the show ended its run in 1974. His 1950s and 1960s television credits included episodes of My Three Sons
My Three Sons
My Three Sons is an American situation comedy. The series ran from 1960 to 1965 on ABC, and moved to CBS until its end on August 24, 1972. My Three Sons chronicles the life of a widower and aeronautical engineer named Steven Douglas , raising his three sons.The series was a cornerstone of the CBS...
, Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon
Steve Canyon was a long-running American adventure comic strip by writer-artist Milton Caniff. Launched shortly after Caniff retired from his previous strip, Terry and the Pirates, Steve Canyon ran from January 13, 1947 until June 4, 1988, shortly after Caniff's death...
, The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
, Rawhide
Rawhide (TV series)
Rawhide is an American Western series that aired for eight seasons on the CBS network on Friday nights, from January 9, 1959 to September 3, 1965, before moving to Tuesday nights from September 14, 1965 until January 4, 1966, with a total of 217 black-and-white episodes...
and Wagon Train
Wagon Train
Wagon Train is an American Western series that ran on NBC from 1957–62 and then on ABC from 1962–65...
.
Scott orchestrated for a number of other prominent television and film composers beginning in the 1970s, including Quincy Jones
Quincy Jones
Quincy Delightt Jones, Jr. is an American record producer and musician. A conductor, musical arranger, film composer, television producer, and trumpeter. His career spans five decades in the entertainment industry and a record 79 Grammy Award nominations, 27 Grammys, including a Grammy Legend...
on The Color Purple
The Color Purple
The Color Purple is an acclaimed 1982 epistolary novel by American author Alice Walker. It received the 1983 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award for Fiction...
, his son Tom Scott
Tom Scott (musician)
Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
in Hanky Panky
Hanky Panky (film)
Hanky Panky is a 1982 comedy film that stars Gene Wilder and Gilda Radner. The film is directed by Sidney Poitier. Wilder first met Radner during filming of this movie; the two later married.-Plot:...
and Stu Phillips for The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy
The Fall Guy is an American action/adventure television program produced for ABC and originally broadcast from November 4, 1981 to May 2, 1986. It starred Lee Majors, Douglas Barr, and Heather Thomas. Majors and Barr are the only two actors to appear in all 112 episodes of the series...
and Battlestar Galatica.
Nathan Scott died of natural causes at his home in Sherman Oaks, California, on February 27, 2010, at the age of 94. He was survived by his son, Grammy-winning saxophonist Tom Scott
Tom Scott (musician)
Tom Scott is an American saxophonist, composer, arranger, conductor and bandleader of the west coast jazz/jazz fusion ensemble The L.A. Express.-Biography:Scott was born in Los Angeles, California...
; his second wife, Frances McCune Scott; his daughter, Linda Colley; his brother and two grandchildren. His first wife, Margery, died in 1995.