Allan Gray - Biography

Allan Gray (23 February 1902  – 10 September 1973) was a composer, noted for his film scores.

He was born Józef Żmigrod in Tarnów, which was then in Austria-Hungary, but is now part of Poland. He studied under the renowned Austrian composer Arnold Schönberg during the 1920s, and later wrote music for Max Reinhardt's theatre productions. As Schoenberg disapproved of such music, Żmigrod took up the pen name Allan Gray, naming himself after Oscar Wilde's Dorian Gray.

He began writing film scores in Germany, but left the country after the rise of the Nazis, settling in England. Establishing himself in the British film industry, he composed for London Films and other major studios before joining Powell and Pressburger for many of their films including The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943), A Canterbury Tale (1944), I Know Where I'm Going! (1945) and A Matter of Life and Death (1946).

Gray died in Amersham, Buckinghamshire, in 1973.

A piece by Allan Gray called "Swing Doors" can be found in the video game Fallout 3.

Selected works

Film scores

• Berlin - Alexanderplatz (1931)
• F.P.1 (1933)
• Mauvaise Graine (1934)
• The Silver Fleet (1943)
• The Life and Death of Colonel Blimp (1943)
• The Volunteer (1943)
• A Canterbury Tale (1944)
• I Know Where I'm Going! (1945)
• Latin Quarter (1945)
• A Matter of Life and Death (1946)
• The Late Edwina Black (1951)
• The Reluctant Widow (1951)
• The African Queen (1951)

Other works

• Wavelength ABC, a children's opera

External links