---
name: "Tristram Cary"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/tristram-cary"
roles: ["Composer"]
born: "14 May 1925"
died: "24 April 2008"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 1
updated: "2026-09-16T15:44:43.190407+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."
---

# Tristram Cary

Composer. Born 14 May 1925 in Oxford. Died 24 April 2008.

## Details

- **Work:** Composer
- **Born:** 14 May 1925, Oxford
- **Died:** 24 April 2008

## Biography

Tristram Cary (14 May 1925 – 24 April 2008) was an English-Australian composer and pioneer of electronic music. Born in Oxford, he was educated at the Dragon School, Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford, before studying composition, piano, horn, viola and conducting at Trinity College of Music, London. Wartime service in the Royal Navy as a radar specialist gave him early training in electronics, which he applied to tape and electronic composition after 1946.

Cary wrote incidental music for eight Doctor Who serials between 1963 and 1972, beginning with The Daleks and including The Daleks’ Master Plan, The Gunfighters and The Mutants. His film scores include The Ladykillers (1955), Time Without Pity (1957), Quatermass and the Pit (1967) and Blood from the Mummy’s Tomb (1971). He founded the electronic music studio at the Royal College of Music in 1967 and designed the VCS3 synthesizer. He received the Medal of the Order of Australia in 1991.

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

## On Fi1m (1)

- *Doctor Who* (1963), Fi1m 81, Music — [page](https://film.one/tv/doctor-who.md)

## Also known for

- *The Ladykillers* (1955), Original Music Composer
- *Quatermass and the Pit* (1967), Original Music Composer
- *Blood from the Mummy's Tomb* (1971), Original Music Composer
- *A Christmas Carol* (1971), Music
- *Time Without Pity* (1957), Original Music Composer

---
© 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/tristram-cary