Alex North (December 4, 1910 ? September 8, 1991) was an American composer responsible for the first jazz-based film score (A Streetcar Named Desire) and the first truly modernist film score (Viva Zapata!). Born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania, North was an original composer probably even by the classical music standards of the day. However, he managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song, "Unchained Melody". Nominated for 15 Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North and Ennio Morricone are the only film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He won the 1968 Golden Globe award for his music to The Shoes of the Fisherman. His most popular film scores include The Rainmaker (1956), Spartacus

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