Trivia

Alfred Hitchcock was so pleased by Herrmann's music for Psycho (1960) that he doubled his contracted fee for the score.

His second wife was the cousin of his first wife.

Not one of Herrmann's scores for Alfred Hitchcock was nominated for an Academy Award. However, his scores for Psycho (1960) and Vertigo (1958) were ranked #4 and #12 by the American Film Institute for their list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema.

Composed the original opening theme for The Twilight Zone (1959). At the start of the second season, it was replaced by the more familiar theme composed by Marius Constant.

The last film he ever saw was Larry Cohen's God Told Me To (1976). Herrmann was Cohen's original choice to score the film because of his work on It's Alive (1974), but he died in his sleep that night, hours after it was screened for him. The film was dedicated to Herrmann in his honor.

Regarded The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947) as his favorite of his own film scores. Some of the main thematic material in the score turned up in Herrmann's only opera, "Wuthering Heights."

Was the #1 inspiration and role model to composer Danny Elfman.

Among his early radio work, he scored Orson Welles' infamous "War of the Worlds" broadcast.

When Bernard Herrmann arrived in Hollywood, his natural gifts for film scoring were immediately recognized. He received Oscar nominations for his first two films, "Citizen Kane" (1941) and "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (1941), and won the award for the latter. It was the beginning of a tempestuous relationship with the movie industry. Herrmann was unusual among film composers of the time in working on a per-film basis, refusing to be put under long-term contract; he insisted on doing his own orchestrations and introduced instruments and techniques that were new to Tinseltown scoring, such as the electronic effects in "The Day the Earth Stood Still" (1951). But Herrmann's abrasive personality and explosive, irrational temper alienated friends and made him many enemies in the industry, and they retaliated through the Motion Picture Academy. After 1941 he received only one Oscar nomination during his lifetime, for "Anna and the King of Siam" (1946), while much of his best work - including all his films with Alfred Hitchcock - was snubbed. After Herrmann's death in December 1975, the Academy posthumously nominated him for his last two films, "Obsession" (1976) and "Taxi Driver" (1976).

Was supposed to score Brian De Palma's film Carrie (1976), but he died just before that movie's post production was started, so the job was taken over by Pino Donaggio.

Was known to be a staunch Anglophile.

In his series 20th Century Greats (2004), British composer and presenter Howard Goodall made a case for Hermann as one of the four most important composers of the 20th century, along with Leonard Bernstein, Cole Porter and the Lennon (John Lennon)\McCartney (Paul McCartney) songwriting partnership.

Herrmann didn't care about awards, perhaps echoing the sentiment of one of his musical idols, composer Charles Ives: "Prizes are for boys, and I'm a grown-up". He gave his only Oscar (for "The Devil and Daniel Webster", 1941) to his daughter Dorothy Herrmann to keep when she was a teenager. Dorothy remembered, "In later years, whenever he visited me and saw it, he looked a bit surprised as if he had forgotten he had even won it".

Conductor for CBS Radio's "Crime Classics" (1953-1954).

Pictured on one of six 33¢ USA commemorative postage stamps in the Legends of American Music series, honoring Hollywood Composers, issued 21 September 1999. Issued in panes of 20 stamps. Others honored in the set were Max Steiner, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Alfred Newman, and Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

Father, with Lucille Fletcher, of Dorothy Herrmann.

Herrmann is buried at Beth David Cemetery in Elmont, New York, in Section BB2, at the intersection of Beth Israel and Washington Avenues.

Graduated from The Juilliard School Center for Innovation in the Arts.

Upon arriving at Albert Hall one finds "Bernard Hermann" prominently featured on the evening event's one sheet.