Celebrity Biographies
Irving gertz
Irving Gertz was a prolific composer of film music, often associated with the scores for B-movies of monsters and science fiction. The musician died on November 14, at the age of 93, at his residence in Los Angeles.
Born in Providence on May 19, 1915, Irving Gertz learned to play the piano, clarinet, tuba, and bass as a young man. He attended classes at Providence College of Music and received private composition lessons with Walter Piston, a renowned composer.
Hired by Columbia Pictures in 1938, he left the job temporarily to fight in World War II. Back in the United States, he was hired again by the same studio. He composed piecework and still maintained a high level of quality that gave him immense prestige in the film world. Between the 1940s and the 1960s, he composed more than 200 films, although many times he did not even appear in the credits. He not only stayed at MGM, but was also a regular contributor to Columbia, Universal and Fox.
He was especially good at fantastic cinema as he composed The Incredible Shrinking Man , and also lesser-known titles such as They Came From Space , The Curse of the Zombie or Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy . He also created scores for many westerns, such as A Gun for a Coward or The 7th Cavalry .
Gertz also worked for television series, such as Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea . He also composed music for concerts.