---
name: "Ernst Toch"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/ernst-toch"
fi1m_id: "ernst-toch"
imdb_id: "nm0006324"
tmdb_id: 33249
wikidata_id: "Q213635"
roles: ["Composer"]
born: "7 December 1887"
died: "1 October 1964"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 80
average_over: 2
updated: "2026-09-25T06:29:20.631884+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Ernst Toch

## Identity

Ernst Toch

- **Canonical:** https://film.one/person/ernst-toch
- **Type:** Person
- **Fi1m ID:** ernst-toch
- **IMDb ID:** nm0006324
- **TMDB ID:** 33249
- **Wikidata ID:** Q213635
- **Same entity:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Toch, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q213635, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006324/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/33249

Composer. Born 7 December 1887 in Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria. Died 1 October 1964.

## Details

- **Work:** Composer
- **Born:** 7 December 1887, Leopoldstadt, Vienna, Austria
- **Died:** 1 October 1964
- **Active:** 1935–1953
- **Academy Awards:** 2 Oscar nominations
- **Fi1m score by decade:** 1930s 74 (1), 1950s 86 (1)
- **Elsewhere:** https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ernst_Toch, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q213635, https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0006324/, https://www.themoviedb.org/person/33249

## Biography

Ernst Toch was an Austrian composer of classical music and film scores. Born in Vienna in 1887, he studied music in Frankfurt and taught in Mannheim and Berlin before emigrating in 1933 following the Nazi rise to power. He worked briefly in Paris and London before settling in the United States.

In Hollywood he composed scores for Paramount and other studios, including *Peter Ibbetson* (1935), *The Cat and the Canary* (1939), *The Ghost Breakers* (1940) and *Dr. Cyclops* (1940). He received Academy Award nominations for three of his film scores. Toch also taught composition and philosophy at the University of Southern California from 1937 to 1948.

His concert works include seven symphonies; the Third Symphony (1955) won the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1956. He became a naturalised American citizen in 1940 and died in Los Angeles in 1964.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, moviemusicuk.us, britannica.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *The Big Heat* (1953), Fi1m 86, Additional Music — [page](https://film.one/film/the-big-heat.md)
- *Peter Ibbetson* (1935), Fi1m 74, Original Music Composer, Music, Music Director — [page](https://film.one/film/peter-ibbetson.md)

## Complete filmography (24)

Every credit, newest first. Titles without a page can be requested for review on the HTML page.

- *Four Journeys Into Mystic Time: One Two Three* (1978), Music
- *Women's Prison* (1955), Music
- *The Big Heat* (1953), Additional Music — Fi1m 86, [page](https://film.one/film/the-big-heat.md)
- *Devotion* (1946), Orchestrator
- *My Name Is Julia Ross* (1945), Additional Music
- *The Unseen* (1945), Music
- *The Soul of a Monster* (1944), Music
- *Address Unknown* (1944), Original Music Composer
- *None Shall Escape* (1944), Original Music Composer
- *First Comes Courage* (1943), Music
- *Fly By Night* (1942), Original Music Composer
- *Ladies in Retirement* (1941), Original Music Composer
- *The Ghost Breakers* (1940), Original Music Composer
- *Dr. Cyclops* (1940), Original Music Composer
- *The Cat and the Canary* (1939), Original Music Composer
- *The Return of the Cisco Kid* (1939), Original Music Composer
- *The Story of Alexander Graham Bell* (1939), Original Music Composer
- *On Such a Night* (1937), Original Music Composer
- *Outcast* (1937), Original Music Composer
- *Murder with Pictures* (1936), Original Music Composer
- *Peter Ibbetson* (1935), Original Music Composer, Music Director — Fi1m 74, [page](https://film.one/film/peter-ibbetson.md)
- *Little Friend* (1934), Music
- *The Rise of Catherine the Great* (1934), Original Music Composer
- *The Private Life of Don Juan* (1934), Original Music Composer

## Awards

### Academy Awards — 0 won, 2 nominated

- 1945: Best Original Dramatic or Comedy Score (nominated), for *Address Unknown*
- 1942: Best Original Dramatic Score (nominated), for *Ladies in Retirement*

### Other awards — 2 won

- Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany 1958: Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (won)
- Pulitzer Prize for Music 1956: Pulitzer Prize for Music (won), for *Symphony No. 3*

*From Wikidata, which records wins more completely than nominations.*

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/ernst-toch