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Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner (born May 10, 1888 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary; died December 28, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an Austrian-American composer of music for films.

Life

The grandson of Maximilian Steiner (1839-1880), influential manager of Vienna's Theater an der Wien, and son of Gabor Steiner (1858-1944), important Viennese and carnival and exposition manager, he was a child prodigy in composing. He was the godson of Richard Strauss. He received piano instruction from Johannes Brahms and, at the age of fifteen, enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Music (now known as the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna), where he was taught by Gustav Mahler among others. His supernormal musical aptitudes enabled him to complete the school's four-year degree in only one.

At the age of 16 Steiner wrote and conducted the operetta The Beautiful Greek Girl. At the opening of World War I, Steiner was working in London. There he was classified an enemy alien but was befriended by the Duke of Westminster and given exit papers. He arrived in New York in December, 1914 with $32 to his name.

Steiner worked for 15 years in New York as an arranger, orchestrator and conductor of Broadway operettas and musicals written by Victor Herbert, Jerome Kern, Vincent Youmans and George Gershwin.

In 1929, Steiner went to Hollywood to orchestrate the film version of the Florenz Ziegfield show Rio Rita for RKO Radio Pictures. The score for King Kong in 1933 made Steiner's reputation. He conducted the scores for several Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers musicals, including Top Hat and Roberta. He scored hundreds of Hollywood films, and was the most prominent composer in the music department of Warner Brothers Studios.

Awards and honors

Max Steiner received 26 Academy Award nominations for his work, winning 3 Oscars. He did not win one for what is perhaps his most familiar score, that of Gone with the Wind.

Steiner has been called "the father of film music." He is entombed in the Great Mausoleum at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California.

In 1995, he was inducted posthumously into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Steiner has a star on the Walk of Fame, located at 1551 Vine Street, for his contribution to motion pictures.

Selected filmography

External links

1888 births | 1971 deaths | Composers | Film score composers | Jewish classical musicians | Jewish composers and songwriters

Max Esteiner | Max Steiner | Max Steiner | Max Steiner | מקס שטיינר | Max Steiner

 

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