Ernst Sigmund Goldner (July 13, 1921 – March 17, 1999), known professionally as Ernest Gold, was an Austrian-born American
composer. He is most noted for his work on the film Exodus produced in 1960.
Early life
Gold was born in 1921 in
Vienna, the son of Elisabeth (Stransky) and Gustav Goldner.
Gold's father's mother (Jaiteles) had ancestry from
Szeged, Hungary[1][2] and mother's mother (Therese Sprung) from
Temesvár[3] and Budapest (Spitzer).[4][5] Gold came from a musical family. His father played the violin, and his mother sang.[6] His father also studied under
Richard Heuberger.[7] Gold said that he learned to read music before he had learned to read words.[7] He studied the violin and the piano when he was six years old and began composing music at eight. By age 13, he had written an entire opera.[4] As a child, he said he wanted to go to
Hollywood and be a composer.[8]: 24 Gold would go to movie theaters as a teenager not only to watch the films but also to listen to the musical score. Among prominent film composers of the time he admired
Max Steiner.[7] In 1938, Gold attended the Viennese
Akademie für Musik und darstellende Kunst, but he and his family moved to the U.S. after the
NaziAnschluss in Austria, because of the family's
Jewish heritage.[4] In the United States, Gold earned money by working as an accompanist and writing popular songs in
New York City. He also studied with Otto Cesana and
Léon Barzin at the National Orchestra Association.[7]
Career
NBC Orchestra performed Gold's first symphony in 1939, only a year after he moved to the United States.[4] In 1941, he composed a symphony that was later played at
Carnegie Hall in 1945.[7] Gold moved to
Hollywood in the same year to work with
Columbia Pictures, his first significant role being the score for the melodrama Girl of the Limberlost (1945). After this opportunity, Gold wrote scores for other minor films.[4] For the next ten years, he continued to work on
B movies, mainly orchestrating and arranging music for western movies and melodramas.[6]
Gold produced his first original film score in 1958 for Too Much, Too Soon. His big break came in 1959, when he was asked to score On the Beach after Antheil became ill and he recommended Gold for the job.[7]
Gold is most widely recognized for composing
the score of Exodus (1960).[4] He was contracted by
Otto Preminger and, atypically, was able to watch the filming of the movie.[6] Gold spent time in
Israel to write the score.[8]: 26
In 1968, Gold wrote a
Broadway musical[4] called I'm Solomon.[9] He also wrote music for television.[6] In his later life, Gold was the musical director of the Santa Barbara Symphony Orchestra. He also founded the
Los Angeles Senior Citizens Orchestra.[4]
Gold's contributions were recognized with
Academy Award nominations and
Golden Globe nominations. He won a Golden Globe in 1960 for Best Motion Picture Score for 1959's On the Beach. This film was also nominated for an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture that same year. In 1960, Gold's Exodus was nominated for a Golden Globe in the Best Original Score category.[11] The film won an Academy Award for Best Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and a Grammy for Best Soundtrack Album.[12] For his contributions, Gold had his name engraved in the
Hollywood Walk of Fame. He was the first composer to receive this honor.[13]
Personal life
Gold was married to singer and actress
Marni Nixon from 1950 to 1969. They had three children: musician
Andrew Gold (composer of "
Lonely Boy" and "
Thank You for Being a Friend"), Martha Carr, and Melani Gold.[11][14] Gold's marriage after Nixon[15]: 62 was to Jan Keller Gold (from 1975 until his death).[16]