Biography
Werner R. Heymann (also credited as Werner Richard Heymann) was a German-Jewish composer. Born in Königsberg in 1896, he began as a classical musician and child prodigy in Berlin, later working in cabaret and serving as musical director for Max Reinhardt. From 1923 he composed for UFA, scoring silent films including Faust (1926) and Spies (1928), and early sound operettas such as The Congress Dances (1931).
After emigrating in 1933, he settled in Hollywood in the mid-1930s. There he scored several Ernst Lubitsch comedies, among them Ninotchka (1939), The Shop Around the Corner (1940), That Uncertain Feeling (1941) and To Be or Not to Be (1942). He also worked with Preston Sturges on Hail the Conquering Hero (1944). Heymann received four Academy Award nominations for his film scores in the early 1940s.
He returned to Germany in 1951 and continued composing for film and theatre until his death in Munich in 1961.
