1922 - 2004

Sein Piano-Lehrer erkannte schon früh das kreative Talent des jungen Elmer Bernstein und machte ihn mit Aaron Copland bekannt, der sich ebenfalls beeindruckt zeigte. In den folgenden Jahren studierte er Komposition bei Stefan Wolpe und Roger Sessions. 

1943 ging er zur Armee, wo er für Major Glenn Miller orchestrale Arrangements folkloristischer Lieder schrieb. Später schrieb er Partituren für das Armed Forces Radio, insgesamt entstanden 80 Programme. Dies brachte ihm einen Vertrag bei NBC ein, was ihm wiederum die Türen zu Hollywoods Filmmusik öffnete. 

Seine ersten Filmkompositionen waren unbedeutende Soundtracks für Filme wie „Sudden Fear“ (52), „Boots Malone“ (52), „Robot Monster“ (53), „Silent Raiders“ (54) und „Miss Robin Crusoe“ (54). 

Doch dann folgte seine Musik zu Otto Premingers „The Man With the Golden Arm“ (55), der ihm die erste von insgesamt dreizehn Oscar-Nominationen einbrachte, und zu Cecil B. DeMilles „The View from Pompey‘s Head“ (55). 
Der Durchbruch und die Anerkennung waren geschafft. Es war wiederum Cecil B. DeMille, der Elmer Bernstein die nächste grosse Herausforderung anbot - einen Epos von vier Stunden Länge mit Musik zu untermalen. Die Rede ist von „The Ten Commandments“ (56). Bernstein meisterte die Aufgabe mit Bravour und zählte fortan zu den begehrtesten Filmkomponisten. Mit seiner Musik zu „The Magnificent Seven“ (60) setzte er sich selber ein Denkmal. 

In den nächsten Jahrzehnten folgten unzählige Filmhits, die von der Kraft von Bernstein‘s Musik profitierten. Darunter befinden sich Highlights wie „Saddle the Wind“ (58), „The Buccaneer“ (58), „Desire Under the Elms“ (58), „The Miracle“ (59), „From the Terrace“ (60), „Birdman of Alcatraz“ (62), „To Kill a Mockingbird“ (62), "The Great Escape" (63), „The Sons of Katie Elder“ (65), „Thoroughly Modern Millie“ (67) - der ihm den einzigen Oscar einbrachte, „The bridge at Remagen“ (69), „Gold“ (74), „Class“ (83), „Ghostbusters“ (84), „Spies Like Us“ (85), „Marie Ward - Zwischen Galgen und Glorie“ (85), „My Left Foot“ (89), „The Field“ (90), „The Grifters“ (90), „Oscar“ (91), „Rambling Rose“ (91), „The Babe“ (92), „The Age of Innocence“ (93), „The Rainmaker“ (97), „Twilight“ (98), „Wild Wild West“ (99) und „Far From Heaven“ (02).                          
 

Weitere Filme von Elmer Bernstein:
Saturday's Hero (51) Never Wave at a WAC (52) Battles of Chief Pontiac (52) A Communications Primer (53) Cat-Women on the Moon (53) S-73 (54) Make Haste to Live (54) House: After Five Years of Living (55) The Eternal Sea (55) Storm Fear (55) It's a Dog's Life (55) The Naked Eye (56) Eames Lounge Chair (56) The Information Machine (57) Men in War (57) Fear Strikes Out (57) Sweet Smell of Success (57) Drango (57) The Tin Star (57) Kings Go Forth (58) God's Little Acre (58) Serie "General Electric Theater: Battle for a Soul" (58) Some Came Running (58) The Race for Space (59) Glimpses of the USA (59) Anna Lucasta (59) Toccata for Toy Trains (59) Serie "Johnny Staccato: Tempted" (59) The Story of Page One (59) Introduction to Feedback (60) The Fabulous Fities (60) Serie "Riverboat" (59-60) The Rat Race (60) Hollywood: The Golden Years (61) IBM Mathematics Peep Show (61) By Love Possessed (61) The Young Doctors (61) The Comancheros (61) Summer and Smoke (61) San Francisco Fire (62) Walk on the Wild Side (62) D-Day June 6, 1944 (62) Hollywood: The Fabulous Era (62) A Girl Named Tamiko (62) Hollywood: The Great Stars (63) Hud (63) The Caretakers (63) Rampage (63) Project: Man in Space (63) Kings of the Sun (63) Love with the Proper Stranger (63) The Kaming of the President 1960 (63) House of Science (64) A Thousand Days: A Tribute to John Fitzgerald Kennedy (64) The World of Henry Orient (64) The Carpetbaggers (64) Four Days i November (64) The Smithsonian Institute (65) Sherlock Holmes in the Singular Case of the Plural Green Mustache (65) Westinghouse in Alphabetical Order (65) IBM at the Fair (65) IBM Puppet Shows (65) View from the People Wall (65) Baby the Rain Must Fall (65) The Hallelujah Trail (659 France. Conquest to Liberation (65) The Reward (65) In search of man (65) 7 Women (66) the Silencers (66) Cast a Giant Shadow (66) Hawaii (66) Return of the Seven (66) A Computer Glossary (68) Serie "The Big Valley" (67-68) The Scalphunters (68) I Love you, Alice B. Toklas! (68) Tops (69) Where's Jack? (69) Midas Run (69) True Grit (69) Guns of the Magnificent Seven (69) The Gypsy Moths (69) Kifar...The Black Rhino (70) The Unfinished Journey of Robert Kennedy (70) The Liberation of L.B. Jones (70) Walk in the Spring Rain (70) Cannon for Cordoba (70) Computer Landscape (71) Appointment with Destiny: The Last Days of John Dillinger (71) The Tell-Tale Heart (71) Doctors' Wives (71) Big Jake (71) Blind Terror (71) Owen Marshall, Counsellor at Law (71) SX-70 (72) Computer Perspective (72) The Rookies (72) Serie "The Rookies: Concrete Valley, Neon Sky" (72) The Magnificent Seven Ride! (72) Serie "Gunsmoke: Hostage!" (72) The Amazing Mr. Blunden (72) Nightmare Honeymoon (73) The Crucifixon of Jesus (73) Copernicus (73) Incident on a Dark Street (73) Serie "Appointment with Destiny" (71-73) Cahill U.S. Marshal (73) McQ (74) Men of the Dragon (74) Serie "The Rookies: Judgement" (74) The Trial of Billy Jack (74) Meetropolitan Overview (75) Report to the Commissioner (75) Ellery Queen (75) The Old Curiosity Shop (75) Serie "Ellery Queen: The Adventure of the Mad Tea Party" (75) The Look of America (76) Serie "Ellery Queen: The Adventure of the Sunday Punch" (76) Serpico: The Deadly Game (76) The Shootist (76) From Noon Till Three (76) Serie "Captains and the Kings" (76) The Incredible Sarah (76) The Worlds of Franklin and Jeffreson (77) Polavision (77) Daummier: Paris and the Spectator (77) Powers of Ten (77) Serie "Seventh Avenue" (77) Billy Jack Goes to Washington (77) The 3'000 Mile Chase (77) Macbeth (78) Degas in the Metropolitan (78) Masks (78) Art Game (78) Cézanne (78) Animal House (78) Bloodbrothers (78) Little women (78) A Report on the IBM Exhibition Center (79) Charleston (79) Serie "The Chisholms" (79) Zulu Dawn (79) Meatballs (79) The Great Santini (79) Saturn 3 (80) Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (80) This Year's Blonde (80) Airplane! (80) Going Ape! (81) Stripes (81) Heavy Metal 881) Honky Tonk Freeway (81) An American Werewolf in London (81) The Chosen (81) Genocide (82) Five Days One Summer (82) Airplane II: The Sequel (82) Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone (83) Trading Places (83) Gulag (85) The Black Cauldron (85) Prince Jack (85) Legal Eagles (86) Three Amigos! (86) Amazing Grace and Chuck (87) Leonard Part 6 (87) Da (88) Funny Farm (88) The Good Mother (88) Slipstream (89) One Day in Dallas (90) A Rage in Harlem (91) The Bogie Man (92) The Cemetery Club (93) Mad Dog and Glory (93) Lost in Yonkers (93) The Good Son (93) Roommates (95) Search and destroy (95) Canadian Bacon (95) Devil in a Blue Dress (95) Frankie Starlight (95) Bulletproof (96) Buddy (97) Hoodlum (97) Puppies for Sale (98) The Deep End of the Ocean (99) Introducing Dorothy Dandridge (99) Bringing Out the Dead (99) Keeping the Faith (00) Chinese Coffee (00) Taking the Wheel (02) The Rising of the Moon (02)