Celebrity Biographies
John morris
He stood out above all as a regular musician in the films directed by Mel Brooks, although he developed a wide filmography. John Morris has died at the age of 91, due to a respiratory infection, at his residence in Red Hook, New York.
Born on October 18, 1926, in Elizabeth, New Jersey, John Leonard Morris was the son of Thomas Morris, a renowned engineer who designed the revolving doors for the Tiffany & Co store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. When he was 3 years old, the family visited a friendly couple in the Bronx who owned a piano. The boy was so fascinated by the instrument that there was no choice but to buy him his own.
He ended up studying at Juilliard School in the late 1940s. Too shy to become a soloist, by his own account, he ended up as an accompanist for singers like Judy Garland , and as a conductor and composer for stage shows. That was how he met Mel Brooks , with whom he collaborated on two short-lived Broadway musicals, 1957’s “Shinbone Alley” and 1962’s “All-American.”
Thanks to him, he went to the world of cinema, when Brooks asked him to write the score for The Producers , their debut feature. In this story of a neurotic producer and accountant ripping off their investors by putting on a must-floop musical about Nazis, the outlandish title track, “Springtime for Hitler,” with lyrics by Brooks, takes the cake.
Both also wrote the title song for Hot Saddles , for which they were nominated for an Oscar. John Morris also composed for his mentor Young Frankenstein (where the violin solo of the main theme stands out), The Last Madness of Mel Brooks , Maximum Anxiety , The Crazy Story of the Galaxies and the film starring Brooks, but not directed by him I am or I am not . John Morris ‘s masterpiece is considered to be the music for David Lynch ‘s The Elephant Man , produced by Brooks, for which he was nominated for an Oscar for Best Score.
After What a Disgusting Life , the two must have had some kind of brawl, since Brooks’ last two films, The Crazy, Crazy Adventures of Robin Hood , and Dracula, a Very Happy and Happy Dead Man , have another composer, Hummie Mann , theoretically for “other commitments” of Morris.
Little is known about his private life, except that he was married, it is not known since what year, to Francesca Bosetti, to whom he remained attached until his death. The marriage had two children.