Biography
Alex North (born Isadore Soifer) was an American composer of film, theatre and concert music. Born in Chester, Pennsylvania, he studied at the Curtis Institute and Juilliard before training in Moscow; he was the first American admitted to the Union of Soviet Composers.
North's film career began with the jazz-inflected score for A Streetcar Named Desire (1951). He went on to score Spartacus (1960), Cleopatra (1963), Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? (1966), The Misfits (1961), Dragonslayer (1981) and Prizzi's Honor (1985), among many others. He received fifteen Academy Award nominations but no competitive wins; in 1986 he became the first composer awarded an Honorary Oscar. He also composed the song 'Unchained Melody' (1955).
