Roy Webb

Roy Webb

Composer. Born 3 October 1888 in New York City, New York, USA. Died 10 December 1982.

ComposerAmerican
3
Titles on Fi1m
90
Average Fi1m score
Born
3 October 1888, New York City, New York, USA
Died
10 December 1982
Active
1938–1947

Biography

Roy Webb was an American film music composer. Born in New York City on 3 October 1888, he died on 10 December 1982. He is credited as composer or music director on hundreds of films, principally for RKO Pictures, and is particularly associated with the studio's film noir and horror productions, including those produced by Val Lewton.

Webb orchestrated and conducted for the Broadway stage before moving to Hollywood in the late 1920s as music director for Radio Pictures, later RKO. He remained at RKO until 1955 and subsequently worked freelance. He received Academy Award nominations for the scores of Quality Street (1937), My Favourite Wife (1940), I Married a Witch (1942), Joan of Paris (1942), The Fallen Sparrow (1943), The Fighting Seabees (1944) and The Enchanted Cottage (1945).

Among his best-known scores are those for Bringing Up Baby (1938), Cat People (1942), Notorious (1946), Out of the Past (1947) and Marty (1955). An alumnus of Columbia University, he wrote the university's fight song 'Roar, Lion, Roar' in 1925.

Films and series

Beyond what we have reviewed, Roy Webb is known for Cat People (1942), Marty (1955), I Walked with a Zombie (1943), The Spiral Staircase (1946), Murder, My Sweet (1944), I Married a Witch (1942), The Body Snatcher (1945) and My Favorite Wife (1940).