RIVER KWAI & Former Hammer Composer Malcolm Arnold Dead at 84

By: Randall Larson
Date: Monday, September 25, 2006

Composer Sir Malcolm Arnold has died in hospital after a brief illness at the age of 84.

Sir Malcolm, who won an Oscar for the musical score to the BRIDGE ON THE RIVER KWAI film in 1958 - was suffering from a chest infection.

While renowned as a classical composer, he is most famous for his 132 film scores,

composing 132 including WHISTLE DOWN THE WIND and HOBSON'S CHOICE. Arnold composed films on almost every genre, including some notable works for Hammer Films and director Terence Fisher, including THE STOLEN FACE (1952), about a plastic surgeon who changes the face of a woman fugitive to replicate his former lover, WINGS OF DANGER (1952), aka DEAD ON COURSE, a seafaring action drama about smugglers, and THE FOUR SIDED TRIANGLE (1953), about a man who "duplicates" the woman he loves after she marries another. He also scored Michael Anderson's 1956 film of George Orwell's 1984.

Much of Arnold's film music has been compiled on a newly-recorded release from the British Chandos label.

As well as film scores, Sir Malcolm also composed seven ballets, nine symphonies, three sinfoniettas, fourteen concerti, and two operas. He was knighted in 1993.

- via musicfromthemovies.com

Official web site: www.malcolmarnold.co.uk
The Malcolm Arnold Music Society: www.musicweb.uk.net/arnold/arnold.htm

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