---
name: "Hugo Friedhofer"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/hugo-friedhofer"
roles: ["Composer"]
born: "3 May 1901"
died: "17 May 1981"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T12:29:00.533281+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."
---

# Hugo Friedhofer

Composer. Born 3 May 1901 in San Francisco, California, USA. Died 17 May 1981.

## Details

- **Work:** Composer
- **Born:** 3 May 1901, San Francisco, California, USA
- **Died:** 17 May 1981
- **Also known as:** Hugo Wilhelm Friedhofer, Hugo W. Friedhofer

## Biography

Hugo Friedhofer was an American composer and cellist known for his film scores. Born in San Francisco, California, he began playing the cello at the age of 13 and studied harmony and counterpoint at the University of California, Berkeley. He worked as a cellist with the People's Symphony Orchestra before moving to Hollywood in 1929.

He was employed as an orchestrator at Warner Bros., where he worked on more than 50 films, largely with Max Steiner and Erich Wolfgang Korngold. His first full-length score as composer was for *The Adventures of Marco Polo* (1938). He later composed for films including *Lifeboat* (1944), *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), for which he won the Academy Award for Best Original Score, *Gilda* (1946), *Ace in the Hole* (1951) and *An Affair to Remember* (1957). He received a total of nine Oscar nominations.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, mfiles.co.uk.*

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Ace in the Hole* (1951), Fi1m 87, Music — [page](https://film.one/film/ace-in-the-hole.md)

## Also known for

- *Casablanca* (1943), Orchestrator — [page](https://film.one/film/casablanca.md)
- *Arsenic and Old Lace* (1944), Orchestrator
- *The Adventures of Robin Hood* (1938), Orchestrator
- *The Best Years of Our Lives* (1946), Original Music Composer
- *Gilda* (1946), Original Music Composer
- *An Affair to Remember* (1957), Original Music Composer
- *Lifeboat* (1944), Original Music Composer
- *How Green Was My Valley* (1941), Orchestrator

---
© 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/hugo-friedhofer