Lalo Schifrin, composer of the iconic “Mission: Impossible” theme, has died. He was 93.
The cause of death was pneumonia, said his wife, Donna Schifrin.
Schifrin grew up in Buenos Aires with Latin and classical music as well as opera — his father was a violinist in the Buenos Aires Philharmonic at the Teatro Colon opera house — before starting a jazz ensemble in his 20s after seeing a Louis Armstrong performance, which he compared to “a religious conversion.”
He wrote “Gillespiana,” for Dizzy Gillespie’s rapid-fire trumpeting, which went on to sell 1 million copies in 1960.
Schifrin went to the U.S. and was hired to write the score for the Steve McQueen thriller “Bullitt,” which builds tension ahead of the film’s famous car chase, then drops out once McQueen hits the gas and starts burning rubber through San Francisco.
He also scored Paul Newman’s “Cool Hand Luke” — part of which became the ABC “Eyewitness News” theme — and collaborated with fellow jazz fan Clint Eastwood eight times, including several films in the “Dirty Harry” series. He was hired to score “Enter the Dragon” — Bruce Lee’s final film — at the star’s request after he began martial arts training to the “Mission: Impossible” theme.
Schifrin won two Grammy Awards for the theme and the album “Music from Mission: Impossible” in 1967.
He was described as “the most inventive composer of movie scores in the business” by Time magazine in 1969.
Schifrin scored episodes for more than a hundred films and TV shows and also composed theme songs for shows like “Starsky & Hutch,” “Mannix” and the spy series which inspired a long-running film franchise. He went on to have a late-career resurgence scoring the three “Rush Hour” buddy cop comedies starring Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker.
He received an honorary Oscar in 2018, becoming only the third composer to do so.
“Receiving this honorary Oscar is the culmination of a dream. It is a mission accomplished,” he said during the awards show.
The musician also wrote a symphony, a ballet and seven concertos.
In addition to his spouse, whom he married in 1971, Shifrin is survived by three children (William Schifrin and wife Lissa, Frances Schifrin and husband John Newcombe, Ryan Schifrin and wife Theresa) and four grandchildren.
