Biography
Ian Freebairn-Smith (4 March 1932 – 7 October 2025) was an American composer, arranger, conductor and singer working in film and television. Born in Seattle, he moved to California as a child and studied composition at the Los Angeles Conservatory of Music, the University of Pennsylvania and UCLA, later taking film scoring classes with Leith Stevens.
He began his career as a session singer and arranger, contributing vocals to the themes of television series including Batman, Flipper and Gilligan's Island. His composing and arranging credits include the films The Strawberry Statement (1970) and The Muppet Movie (1979), for which he served as music arranger and conductor, as well as the television series Cagney & Lacey (1982), Fame (1982) and Airwolf (1984). In 1977 he won a Grammy Award for Best Arrangement Accompanying Vocalist for Barbra Streisand's recording of "Evergreen" from A Star Is Born.
