Cyril Mockridge

Cyril John Mockridge was born in London on 6 August 1896 and died in Honolulu on 18 January 1979. He was an American composer of British origin who was linked for decades to Hollywood cinema. His initial training took place at the Royal Academy of Music in London, before he completed three years of service in the British Army.

After the war he earned his living as a pianist in orchestras and London cinemas. In 1922 he moved to New York, where he worked on Broadway as a rehearsal pianist and vaudeville accompanist, and produced piano arrangements of musicals, among them some by Rodgers and Hart. Richard A. Whiting brought him to Hollywood, and in 1932 he joined the music department of the Fox Film Corporation. His first work at the studio was as a rehearsal pianist and arranger, mainly on Shirley Temple films, although he soon began to compose and conduct.

When Alfred Newman invited him to join 20th Century-Fox, he became one of the pillars of the studio until 1960, the year he began working as a freelancer. He is credited with contributing to more than 200 films, many of them written in collaboration with David Buttolph, Hugo Friedhofer, Alfred Newman or David Raksin. Among his most notable scores are The Ox-bow Incident and Nightmare Alley, as well as that of John Ford's The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, in which he skilfully drew on traditional American melodies and folk tunes. He also composed music for numerous television series, with the theme of Laramie being the example most often cited.

His legacy lies above all in his craft within the studio system: he was a constantly working musician, capable of moving from the sophisticated comedy of Desk Set to western music, and his name is associated with a large part of Fox's output for more than a generation.