Jerry Goldsmith


Composer
Jerry Goldsmith

About

Also Known As
Jerrald Goldsmith
Birth Place
Los Angeles, California, USA
Born
February 10, 1929
Died
July 21, 2004
Cause of Death
Cancer

Biography

His scores for "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "The Omen" (1976), "Star Trek, the Motion Picture" (1979), "Alien" (1979), and "Poltergeist" (1982) made him the king of science fiction and horror movie music, but veteran film composer Jerry Goldsmith had more to offer than mere thrills and chills. A one-time student of acclaimed composer Miklós Rózsa, Goldsmith channeled his passion for clas...

Family & Companions

Carol Heather Sheinkopf
Wife
Married on July 23, 1972; mother of Goldsmith's youngest son.

Notes

Goldsmith received the Max Steiner Award for achievement in scoring and composing motion picture music from the National Film Society in 1982. Other honors include: the Richard Kirk Award, Broadcast Music, Inc (1987); the Golden Score Award, American Society of Music Arrangers (1990); an honorary Mus D degree, Berklee College of Music (1990) and a Career Achievement Award, Society for the Preservation of Film Music (1993).

In 1997, Goldsmith donated his original manuscripts to teh Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

Biography

His scores for "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "The Omen" (1976), "Star Trek, the Motion Picture" (1979), "Alien" (1979), and "Poltergeist" (1982) made him the king of science fiction and horror movie music, but veteran film composer Jerry Goldsmith had more to offer than mere thrills and chills. A one-time student of acclaimed composer Miklós Rózsa, Goldsmith channeled his passion for classical composition into his work on such prestige pictures as "Lonely Are the Brave" (1962), "Lilies of the Field" (1963), and "Patton" (1970), the latter of which garnered him one of many Academy Award nominations for Best Original Score. During his journeyman years as an in-house composer for the Columbia Broadcasting System, Goldsmith was an indispensable component of such long-running television series as "Playhouse 90," "Dr. Kildare," "The Twilight Zone" and "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." but his stock in the film industry rose via his associations with such A-list directors as John Huston, Otto Preminger, John Sturges, and Franklin J. Schaffner. In the bell lap of his long and distinguished career, Goldsmith became the composer of choice for such new talents as Ridley Scott, Paul Verhoeven, Joe Dante and Curtis Hanson, while his scoring for the revived "Star Trek" franchise won him a new generation of followers. Cut down by cancer in 2004, Goldsmith had long since attained enshrinement as a top-flight Hollywood composer, able to bridge the distant past and the unforeseeable future with an infectious measure of wonder and optimism.

Jerrald King Goldsmith was born in Pasadena, CA on Feb. 10, 1929. He began studying piano at age six, and within five years, was a student of Polish concert pianist Jakob Gimpel. While studying with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco, a composer of film scores for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and mentor of future film composers Nelson Riddle, Henry Mancini and John Williams, Goldsmith attended an exhibition of Alfred Hitchcock's "Spellbound" (1945) and was inspired enough by Miklós Rózsa's score to devote himself to a career as a film composer. Goldsmith attended Rózsa's classes at the University of Southern California, but completed his musical education at the more downmarket Los Angeles City College, where he offset his tuition with work as an assistant conductor and opera coach. Upon hearing that the Columbia Broadcasting Company was offering employees free workshops in radio production, Goldsmith secured work as a script typist in the network's music department. Though his first job was slotting library cues into radio dramas, he was later allowed to compose original music for such programs as "CBS Radio Workshop" and "Frontier Gentleman."

Goldsmith contributed uncredited cues to the Marilyn Monroe vehicle "Don't Bother to Knock" (1952), but made his proper debut as a film composer with the low-budget western "Black Patch" (1957). Over the next decade, he toggled between screens big and small, providing accompaniment for such CBS weeklies as "Playhouse 90" (1956-1961), "Perry Mason" (1957-1966) and "Dr. Kildare" (1961-66). His wall-to-wall music for the nearly wordless "Twilight Zone" (1959-1964) episode "The Invaders" garnered great acclaim and he contributed an edgy opening title to the Boris Karloff-hosted omnibus "Thriller" (1961-62). Though his work in films began with such pinchpenny projects as "City of Fear" (1959) and "Face of a Fugitive" (1959), he enjoyed an uptake in status on several Kirk Douglas films, among them "Lonely are the Brave" (1962), "The List of Adrian Messenger" (1962), and "Seven Days in May" (1964). Over the ensuing years, Goldsmith forged important director-composer relationships with John Huston, John Frankenheimer, John Sturges and Otto Preminger.

The vogue for espionage dramas in the wake of Eon Productions' profitable James Bond franchise starring Sean Connery provided Goldsmith with fat feature and TV paychecks. He provided the staccato main title and episodic cues for the popular spy series "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." (NBC, 1964-68) and scored Twentieth Century Fox's tongue-in-cheek Bond spoofs "Our Man Flint" (1966) and "In Like Flint" (1967), starring James Coburn. In a more sober vein, Goldsmith scored John Frankenheimer's edgy science fiction thriller "Seconds" (1966) starring Rock Hudson in a change-of-pace role and provided nearly 90 minutes of original music for Robert Wise's historical adventure-drama "The Sand Pebbles" (1966), starring Steve McQueen as an American sailor caught up in the Chinese Boxer Rebellion. Goldsmith offered more subdued scores for the Sidney Poitier films "Lilies of the Field" (1963) and "A Patch of Blue" (1965) while partnering profitably with director Franklin J. Schaffner on "Planet of the Apes" (1968), "Patton" (1968), and "Papillon" (1973), all of which garnered him Academy Award nominations for Best Original Music.

By his forties, Goldsmith was short-listed as one of Hollywood's premier film composers, with the majority of his efforts aimed at the big screen. Scores for the Burt Reynolds private eye caper "Shamus" (1973), Roman Polanski's tony period whodunit "Chinatown" (1974), the Charles Bronson vehicles "Breakout" (1975) and "Breakheart Pass" (1975), and the John Milius' fact-based adventure "The Wind and the Lion" (1975) followed, while on the small screen he scored the acclaimed miniseries "QB VII" (1974) and episodes of "The Waltons" (CBS, 1971-1981) and "Police Story" (NBC, 1973-77). He returned to genre with "Logan's Run" (1976), "Damnation Alley" (1977), "The Swarm" (1978), and "Magic" (1978) and won his only Oscar for "The Omen" (1976). Goldsmith's score for Ridley Scott's "Alien" (1979) was branded an instant classic, eschewing lyrical themes for dissonant snippets that telegraphed the film's preoccupation with paranoia and doom. In the Eighties, Goldsmith's music box-inspired "Poltergeist" (1982) score was another crowd-pleaser, while his martial accompaniment for "First Blood" (1982) led to profitable assignments on "Rambo: First Blood Part II" (1983) and "Rambo III" (1988).

Sci-fi horror practitioner Joe Dante tapped Goldsmith for a number of his films, among them "Gremlins" (1984), "The 'Burbs" (1988), and "Matinee" (1993), while the composer adapted existing material for "Star Trek, The Motion Picture" (1979), "Psycho 2" (1983), and "Twilight Zone: The Movie" (1983). Oscar nominations followed for his work on "Hoosiers" (1986), "Basic Instinct" (1992), "LA Confidential" (1997), and Disney's "Mulan" (1999), but Goldsmith shockingly remained a one-time Academy honoree. He stuck with the "Star Trek" franchise through several sequels and continued his explorations into genre scoring with "Total Recall" (1990), "The Mummy" (1999), "The Haunting" (1999) and "Hollow Man" (2000). He also enjoyed a continued relationship with the actor Sean Connery, scoring "Outland" (1981), "The Russia House" (1990), and "First Knight" (1995). Additionally, Goldsmith served as a music producer and conductor and conducted his own music in venues around the world, often in partnership with the London Symphony Orchestra. His final credit was for Dante's "Looney Tunes: Back in Action" (2003), for which he received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Original Score. Diagnosed with lung cancer, Goldsmith struggled through a long term of treatment before he succumbed to the disease on July 21, 2004. Posthumously, his music was heard in such films as "Basic Instinct 2" (2006), "The Omen" (2006), "Rambo" (2008), "Scott Pilgrim vs. the World" (2012), "Prometheus" (2012), and "Django Unchained" (2012). Since 1998, Goldsmith's composition "Fanfare for Oscar" has been included in every annual presentation of the Academy Awards - a fitting tribute to one of the greatest, most diverse and prolific film composers of all time.

By Richard Harland Smith

Filmography

 

Cast (Feature Film)

Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)

Music (Feature Film)

Rambo V (2019)
Song
Deadpool 2 (2018)
Song
Ralph Breaks the Internet: Wreck-It Ralph 2 (2018)
Song
Alien: Covenant (2017)
Music Composer
The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015)
Song
The Wedding Ringer (2015)
Song
Django Unchained (2012)
Song
Django Unchained (2012)
Song Performer
Prometheus (2012)
Song
Star Trek (2009)
Music
Rambo (2008)
Music
Inside Man (2006)
Composer
Man About Town (2006)
Song
The Omen (2006)
Music
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Song
Kingdom of Heaven (2005)
Song Performer
Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003)
Music
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Music Conductor
The Kid Stays in the Picture (2002)
Song ("Love Theme From Chinatown"), Song ("The Captive")
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Theme Music
The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Music Conductor
The Sum of All Fears (2002)
Music Composer
Star Trek: Nemesis (2002)
Music
Along Came a Spider (2001)
Music Conductor
Along Came a Spider (2001)
Music
The Last Castle (2001)
Music
Valentine (2001)
Song
Hollow Man (2000)
Music
The Low Down (2000)
Song
Hollow Man (2000)
Music Conductor
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Music Conductor
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Song Performer
The 13th Warrior (1999)
Music
The Haunting (1999)
Music
Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me (1999)
Song
Brokedown Palace (1999)
Song
The Mummy (1999)
Music
Small Soldiers (1998)
Music
U.S. Marshals (1998)
Music
MULAN (1998)
Music Producer
Star Trek: Insurrection (1998)
Music
Deep Rising (1998)
Music; Music Composer And Conductor
Small Soldiers (1998)
Song
MULAN (1998)
Original Score
L.A. Confidential (1997)
Music
Fierce Creatures (1997)
Music
The Edge (1997)
Music
Air Force One (1997)
Music
The Edge (1997)
Original Music
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Music Conductor
Chain Reaction (1996)
Music
City Hall (1996)
Music Conductor
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Music
Star Trek: First Contact (1996)
Theme Music
City Hall (1996)
Music
The Ghost and the Darkness (1996)
Music
Executive Decision (1996)
Music
Powder (1995)
Music
First Knight (1995)
Music Conductor
Congo (1995)
Music
First Knight (1995)
Music Composer
Congo (1995)
Music Conductor
The River Wild (1994)
Music
I.Q. (1994)
Music Conductor
The Shadow (1994)
Music Conductor
Angie (1994)
Music
The Shadow (1994)
Music
I.Q. (1994)
Music
Malice (1993)
Music Conductor
Rudy (1993)
Music
Malice (1993)
Music
The Beverly Hillbillies (1993)
Song
Matinee (1993)
Music
The Vanishing (1993)
Music
Six Degrees Of Separation (1993)
Music
Dennis The Menace (1993)
Music
Medicine Man (1992)
Music Conductor
Mr. Baseball (1992)
Music
Medicine Man (1992)
Music
Forever Young (1992)
Music
Forever Young (1992)
Music Conductor
Mom and Dad Save the World (1992)
Music
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
Music Conductor
Sleeping with the Enemy (1991)
Music
Not Without My Daughter (1991)
Music
Basic Instinct (1991)
Music
Omen IV: the Awakening (1991)
Music
Brotherhood of the Gun (1991)
Theme Music
Hudson Hawk (1991)
Song
The Russia House (1990)
Music
Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Music
Total Recall (1990)
Music
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Music
Leviathan (1989)
Music Conductor
Star Trek V: The Final Frontier (1989)
Song
Leviathan (1989)
Music
Warlock (1989)
Music Conductor
The 'Burbs (1989)
Music
Warlock (1989)
Music
Rent-A-Cop (1988)
Music
Rambo III (1988)
Music
Criminal Law (1988)
Music
Extreme Prejudice (1987)
Music
Lionheart (1987)
Music
Police Story: The Freeway Killings (1987)
Theme Music
Innerspace (1987)
Music
The Assassin (1986)
Music
Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986)
Music
Link (1986)
Music
Hoosiers (1986)
Music
Legend (1986)
Music
Baby ... Secret Of The Lost Legend (1985)
Music
King Solomon's Mines (1985)
Music
Explorers (1985)
Music
Rambo: First Blood Part II (1985)
Music
The Lonely Guy (1984)
Music
Runaway (1984)
Music
The Lonely Guy (1984)
Song
Gremlins (1984)
Music
Supergirl (1984)
Music
Twilight Zone--The Movie (1983)
Music
Psycho II (1983)
Music
The Salamander (1983)
Music
The Return of the Man from U.N.C.L.E. (1983)
Song
Under Fire (1983)
Music
Inchon (1982)
Music
Sword Of The Ninja (1982)
Music
Poltergeist (1982)
Music
The Secret Of Nimh (1982)
Music
The Secret Of Nimh (1982)
Song
First Blood (1982)
Music
First Blood (1982)
Song
The Final Conflict (1981)
Music
Outland (1981)
Music
Caboblanco (1981)
Music
Raggedy Man (1981)
Music
Night Crossing (1981)
Music
Alien (1979)
Music
Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979)
Music
The Great Train Robbery (1979)
Music
Players (1979)
Music
Capricorn One (1978)
Music
The Swarm (1978)
Music
Damien - Omen II (1978)
Music
Coma (1978)
Music
The Boys From Brazil (1978)
Song ("We'Re Home Again")
The Boys From Brazil (1978)
Music
Magic (1978)
Music
MacArthur (1977)
Music
Twilight's Last Gleaming (1977)
Music
Damnation Alley (1977)
Music
Contract on Cherry Street (1977)
Music
The Cassandra Crossing (1977)
Music
Islands In The Stream (1977)
Music
High Velocity (1977)
Music
The Last Hard Men (1976)
Music
The Omen (1976)
Music
Medical Story (1975)
Song
Breakheart Pass (1975)
Music
Logan's Run (1975)
Music
Take a Hard Ride (1975)
Music
The Reincarnation of Peter Proud (1975)
Music
Babe (1975)
Music
A Girl Named Sooner (1975)
Music
Breakout (1975)
Music
Ransom (1974)
Music
S-P-Y-S (1974)
Music (American Version)
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1974)
Music
Chinatown (1974)
Music
Winter Kill (1974)
Music
The Red Pony (1973)
Music
Indict and Convict (1973)
Music
Shamus (1973)
Music
Papillon (1973)
Music
Ace Eli And Rodger Of The Skies (1973)
Music
The Police Story (1973)
Music
The Don Is Dead (1973)
Music
One Little Indian (1973)
Music
The Man (1972)
Music
The Culpepper Cattle Co. (1972)
Music Composition
The Other (1972)
Music
Crawlspace (1972)
Music
Pursuit (1972)
Music
The Mephisto Waltz (1971)
Music
The Last Run (1971)
Music
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
Music
Wild Rovers (1971)
Music
Wild Rovers (1971)
Composer
The Homecoming (1971)
Music
Crosscurrent (1971)
Music
Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate (1971)
Music
The Desperate Mission (1971)
Music
The Traveling Executioner (1970)
Music
Rio Lobo (1970)
Music
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Music
Patton (1970)
Music
Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970)
Music
The Ballad of Cable Hogue (1970)
Composer
The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970)
Composer
The Chairman (1969)
Music comp & Conductor
The Illustrated Man (1969)
Music
Justine (1969)
Music
100 Rifles (1969)
Music
Sebastian (1968)
Music comp & Conductor
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Music
The Detective (1968)
Music
Bandolero! (1968)
Music
Sebastian (1968)
Composer
In Like Flint (1967)
Music
Hour of the Gun (1967)
Music
Warning Shot (1967)
Music
The Flim-Flam Man (1967)
Music
In Like Flint (1967)
Composer
The Karate Killers (1967)
Music
The Trouble With Angels (1966)
Music
The Sand Pebbles (1966)
Music
Our Man Flint (1966)
Music
Seconds (1966)
Music
The Blue Max (1966)
Music comp & Conductor
Stagecoach (1966)
Music
To Trap a Spy (1966)
Music
The Spy With My Face (1966)
Titl theme
One of Our Spies Is Missing (1966)
Theme Music
The Spy in the Green Hat (1966)
Music
One of Our Spies Is Missing (1966)
Music
One Spy Too Many (1966)
Music
In Harm's Way (1965)
Music
Morituri (1965)
Music
A Patch of Blue (1965)
Music
Von Ryan's Express (1965)
Music
The Satan Bug (1965)
Music comp & Conductor
Seven Days in May (1964)
Music
Shock Treatment (1964)
Music
Rio Conchos (1964)
Music
Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
Music
Fate Is the Hunter (1964)
Composer
The Prize (1963)
Music
Lilies of the Field (1963)
Music
A Gathering of Eagles (1963)
Music
The List of Adrian Messenger (1963)
Music
Take Her, She's Mine (1963)
Music
The Stripper (1963)
Music
Freud (1962)
Music
Lonely Are the Brave (1962)
Music
The Spiral Road (1962)
Music
Studs Lonigan (1960)
Music
City of Fear (1959)
Music Composition and Conducting
Face of a Fugitive (1959)
Music Composition and Conducting
Black Patch (1957)
Music Composition and Conducting

Misc. Crew (Feature Film)

Love Field (1992)
Other
Allan Quatermain And The Lost City Of Gold (1987)
Other
Allan Quatermain And The Lost City Of Gold (1987)
Other (Uncredited)

Cast (Special)

AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills (2001)
The Hollywood Soundtrack Story (1995)
Disney's Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra (1992)

Music (Special)

The 76th Annual Academy Awards (2004)
Music Composer
The 75th Annual Academy Awards (2003)
Music Composer
The 73rd Annual Academy Awards (2001)
Music
72nd Annual Academy Awards Presentation (2000)
Music
The 71st Annual Academy Awards Presentation (1999)
Music
Reflections on Ice: Michelle Kwan Skates to the Music of Disney's "Mulan" (1998)
Music
The 70th Annual Academy Awards (1998)
Music
The Truth About Teachers (1989)
Music
The Fourth Wise Man (1985)
Music
Supergirl: The Making of the Movie (1985)
Music
Dusty (1983)
Music

Music (Short)

Prologue The Artist Who Did Not Want to Paint (1965)
Music

Music (TV Mini-Series)

Masada (1981)
Music
Masada (1981)
Song
QB VII (1974)
Music

Life Events

1954

TV debut, provided music for the series, "Climax!"

1957

Feature debut, credited for music, "Black Patch"

1958

First feature as music conductor, also provided music, "City of Fear"

1959

Scored episodes of the popular series, "The Twilight Zone"

1960

First major film scoring opportunity, "Lonely Are the Brave"

1962

Earned first Academy Award nomination for the score to John Huston's "Freud"

1963

Initial collaboration with Franklin J Schaffner, "The Stripper"

1965

Provided additional music for Carol Reed's, "The Agony and the Ecstasy"

1967

TV series producing debut, "The Las Vegas Show"

1969

Debut as concert conductor with his own cantata "Christus Apollo" (text by Ray Bradbury), performed by Southern California Chamber Society

1970

Provided score for Academy Award-winning Best Picture "Patton"; third of seven collaborations with director Schaffner and second Academy Award nomination

1970

TV-movie debut, music credit, "The Brotherhood of the Bell"

1973

Picked up first Emmy for NBC movie "The Red Pony"

1974

Earned Oscar nod for his atmospheric music for Roman Polanski's "Chinatown"

1976

Composed Oscar-winning score for "The Omen"; also nominated for Best Song for "Avi Satani"

1979

First association with "Star Trek"; provided the Oscar-nominated original score for "Star Trek: The Motion Picture"

1983

Initial collaboration with Joe Dante, "It's a Good Life" episode of "Twilight Zone - The Movie"

1987

Provided music for syndicated series "Star Trek: The Next Generation"

1987

Seventh and final collaboration with Schaffner, "Lionheart"

1989

Scored "Star Trek V: The Final Frontier"; also wrote song "The Moon's a Window to Heaven"

1990

First on-screen appearance as a yogurt customer in Dante's "Gremlins 2: The New Batch"

1992

Made first TV appearance as part of the special, "Disney's Young Musicians Symphony Orchestra"

1992

Received 16th Oscar nomination for scoring "Basic Instinct"

1994

Initial collaboration with director Curtis Hanson on "The River Wild"

1995

Wrote theme for sydicated series "Star Trek: Voyager"

1996

Continued on the mission with "Star Trek: First Contact"

1997

Reteamed with Hanson for "L.A. Confidential"

1998

Composed "Fanfare for Oscar", a 45-second theme for the Academy Awards

1998

Eighth collaboration with Dante, "Small Soldiers"

Videos

Movie Clip

Trailer

Chinatown (1974) -- (Original Trailer) A Los Angeles P-I (Jack Nicholson) unwittingly sets up an innocent man for murder, then joins his widow (Faye Dunaway) to unearth the corruption behind the crime in Chinatown (1974), produced by Robert Evans, directed by Roman Polanski.
Patton - (Original Trailer) George C. Scott won a Best Actor Oscar for Patton (1970), the story of the colorful World War II general.
Capricorn One - (Original Trailer) The government fakes a Mars landing then sets out to kill the astronauts involved in the thriller Capricorn One (1978).
Breakheart Pass - (Original Trailer) A U.S. Marshall (Charles Bronson) tries to bring in a captured outlaw during a treacherous train ride through Breakheart Pass (1976).
Coma - (Original Trailer) A doctor (Genevieve Bujold) investigates a series of strange deaths and disappearing bodies at her hospital in Coma (1978).
Our Man Flint - (Original Trailer) When scientists use eco-terrorism to impose their will on the world, top agent Derek Flint (James Coburn) is called in Our Man Flint (1966).
Cassandra Crossing, The - (Original Trailer) An all-star cast is trapped on a train carrying a deadly virus in The Cassandra Crossing (1976) starring Sophia Loren and Martin Sheen.
Boys From Brazil, The - (Original Trailer) A Nazi hunter (Laurence Olivier) tracks a mad scientist (Gregory Peck) out to bring back Hitler.
Prize, The - (Original Trailer) American Nobel Prize-winner Paul Newman mixes it up with spies when he travels to Stockholm to collect his award in The Prize (1963).
Take Her, She's Mine - (Original Trailer) James Stewart attempts to protect his college-age daughter from trouble which leads to scandal in Take Her, She's Mine (1963).
One Spy Too Many - (Original Trailer) The Men from U.N.C.L.E. try to keep Rip Torn from conquering the world in One Spy Too Many (1965).
To Trap a Spy - (Original Trailer) The Men from U.N.C.L.E. try to stop the assassination of an African leader touring the U.S. in To Trap a Spy (1964).

Family

Morris Goldsmith
Father
Structural engineer.
Tessa Goldsmith
Mother
Artist.
Ellen Goldsmith
Daughter
From first marriage.
Carrie Goldsmith
Daughter
From first marriage.
Joel Goldsmith
Son
Composer, sound recordist. From first marriage; born on November 19, 1957; among his many credits, provided additional music for "Star Trek: First Contact" (1996), scored by father.
Jennifer Goldsmith
Daughter
From first marriage.
Aaron Goldsmith
Son
Mother, Carol Heather Sheinkopf.

Companions

Carol Heather Sheinkopf
Wife
Married on July 23, 1972; mother of Goldsmith's youngest son.

Bibliography

Notes

Goldsmith received the Max Steiner Award for achievement in scoring and composing motion picture music from the National Film Society in 1982. Other honors include: the Richard Kirk Award, Broadcast Music, Inc (1987); the Golden Score Award, American Society of Music Arrangers (1990); an honorary Mus D degree, Berklee College of Music (1990) and a Career Achievement Award, Society for the Preservation of Film Music (1993).

In 1997, Goldsmith donated his original manuscripts to teh Margaret Herrick Library of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences

"He experimented a lot and that's what made him so popular with his fans," Carruth said. "When he wrote, he got inside of the characters and he wrote what he felt they were thinking and feeling."---Lois Carruth, his personal assistant to CNN.com, July 22, 2004.