We’ve lost another incredible talent in the world of film composition, the great Lalo Schifrin. I don’t think there is anyone out there in the world that doesn’t know the theme music from Mission: Impossible, whether it’s from the original TV series or the movie series, but Schifrin is the one that created it. It is one of those pieces that immediately has an effect on the listener. In fact, Bruce Lee specifically wanted Schifrin to score his movie Enter the Dragon (1973) because Lee used to work out to the famous TV theme. He also worked quite a bit with Clint Eastwood, doing the Dirty Harry films, not to mention Cool Hand Luke (1967), and Bullitt (1968), and more recent, the Rush Hour trilogy.

For us horror fans, he scored William Girdler’s Day of the Animals (1977) and The Manitou (1978), but my favorite of his work has to be for The Amityville Horror (1979), which remains just as powerful today as it did back then. He would also go on to score the sequel, Amityville II: The Possession (1982). One of his later scores was for his son, Ryan, for his 2006 film Abominable.

He passed away last Thursday, just a few days after his 93rd birthday. We know his legacy will live on every time one of the films he worked on is watched. Our thoughts go out to his friends and family during this difficult time.