David Louis Newman (born March 11, 1954) is an American composer and conductor known particularly for his film scores. In a career spanning more than thirty years, he has composed music for nearly 100 feature films, as well as the 1997 and 1998 versions of the 20th Century Fox fanfare. He received an Academy Award nomination for writing the score to the 1997 film Anastasia, contributing to the Newmans being the most nominated Academy Award extended family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories.
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Life and career
Newman was born on March 11, 1954, in Los Angeles, California, the son of Mississippi-born Martha Louis (née Montgomery) and Hollywood composer Alfred Newman. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants. He is the older brother of Thomas Newman, Maria Newman and the cousin of Randy Newman, all of whom are also composers. He is also the nephew of composers Lionel Newman and Emil Newman, and first cousin, once removed, of musician Joey Newman. An accomplished violinist, and successful concert conductor, Newman was educated at the University of Southern California. From the late 1970s until the early 1980s he played violin on most of John Williams' L.A. scoring sessions, and credits him for learning much about film-music composition. He also performed on the soundtrack of Jerry Goldsmith's The Swarm.
His first film work was on Tim Burton's short film Frankenweenie in 1984. In 1987, he scored Danny DeVito's Throw Momma from the Train. This was his first collaboration with DeVito, and he went on to score nearly all of his subsequent films, including The War of the Roses (1989), Other People's Money (1991), Hoffa (1992), Matilda (1996) and Death to Smoochy (2002). Newman has also scored the comedies The Flintstones (1994), The Mighty Ducks (1992), The Nutty Professor (1996), Paradise (1991), and Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (1989).