Basil Poledouris | Artist
Basil Konstantine Poledouris was an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator of film and television scores, born 1945 in Kansas City, Missouri. Best known for his long-running collaborations with directors John Milius and Paul Verhoeven, some of his best known works include Conan the Barbarian, Red Dawn, Iron Eagle, RoboCop, The Hunt for Red October, Free Willy, Starship Troopers and Les Mis茅rables. Poledouris won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Limited Series, Movie, or Special for his work on the four-part miniseries Lonesome Dove in 1989, and was a four-time recipient of the BMI Film Music Award. Born to Greek immigrant parents from Messenia, Poledouris credited two influences with guiding him towards music: the first was composer Mikl贸s R贸zsa; the second his own Greek Orthodox heritage. Poledouris was raised in the Church, and he used to sit in services enthralled by the choir's sound. He began piano lessons at the age of seven, and after graduation from Garden Grove High School enrolled at the University of Southern California to study filmmaking and music. At USC, Poledouris met movie directors John Milius and Randal Kleiser, with whom he would later collaborate as a music composer. He appeared as a background extra in several episodes of Star Trek: The Original Series. In 1985, Poledouris wrote the music for Paul Verhoeven's Flesh & Blood, establishing a durable collaboration. As a recording artist, his discography lists 47 album releases, including soundtracks to major films and several TV series. Standout releases include Conan the Barbarian (1982), Robocop (1987), The Hunt for Red October (1990), Starship Troopers (1997), and Les Miserables (1998), plus the TV series soundtracks for Lonesome Dove (1993) and Amerika 1987 (2004). Poledouris' music was notable for adding an extra dimension of exotic realism to films, particularly those with fantasy themes, such as Conan the Barbarian. The following review excerpt illustrates how his music "really evokes the aura of primal violence which infuses the movie. With booming drums, horn sections which sound like battle trumpets, and soaring strings, subtle it ain't, but it doesn't intend to be: this is a soundtrack out to crush its enemies, see them driven before it, and hear the lamentation of the vanquished." In 1996, Poledouris composed "The Tradition of the Games" for the Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony that accompanied the memorable dance tribute to the athletes and goddesses of victory of the ancient Greek Olympics, using silhouette imagery. The artist died on November 8, 2006, in Los Angeles, California, aged 61. His elder daughter, Zo毛 Poledouris, is an actress and film composer, who occasionally collaborated with her father in composing film soundtracks.
Artist Website : wikipedia/Basil_Poledouris
Featured Albums: Basil Poledouris
Related Artists: Zo毛 Poledouris
