Awesome Music / The Newmans

If we mention "filmmaking" and "Newman" in the same sentence, the first thing that comes to mind is the iconic film actor Paul Newman. Not to take anything away from Mr. Newman, but there's another entire family of Newmans which has significantly shaped the Hollywood film industry for three generations. The Newman family have been composing music for films (film scoring) since 1931. And in the world of film music, the Newmans cemented themselves as Awesome Music royalty (the only family dynasty of its kind in Hollywood). The name Newman has been an important one since the medium of film music first began, and it will continue to be for many years to come.

Family trivia:

• David Newman received an Academy Award nomination for the score to the animated film Anastasia, following his father, Alfred Newman, who scored the 1956 live-action version.
• In WALL•E, the soundtrack features excerpts from "Put On Your Sunday Clothes" and "It Only Takes a Moment" (both sung by Michael Crawford) from the film Hello, Dolly! (1969). Coincidentally, Thomas Newman's uncle Lionel worked on Hello, Dolly!
• Joey Newman, grandson of Lionel Newman, began a fruitful collaboration with his cousin Randy Newman, providing orchestrations for Universal's Seabiscuit and later Disney/Pixar's Cars.
• Altogether, the members of this musical clan have been nominated for 70 Oscars, with Alfred winning nine, Lionel winning one, and Randy winning two Oscars.

See also AwesomeMusic.Pixar for Pixar films Thomas and Randy composed for, as well as AwesomeMusic.Disney for Randy's work on The Princess and the Frog and AwesomeMusic.Anastasia for David's work on Don Bluth's Anastasia.

Alfred Newman

The patriarch and the most influential composer to ever wield a baton in Hollywood. Also has two brothers who were also composers and conductors of their own right: Lionel Newman (who took over the position of head of music after he left in 1960 and was instrumental in the careers of John Williams and Jerry Goldsmith and also won an Oscar for his work on Hello, Dolly!) and Emil Newman (who was nominated for an Oscar for musical direction on the classic Sun Valley Serenade). Nominated for 45 Oscars and took home nine!

• The fanfare that became the unofficial theme of the movie industry.

David Newman

Son of Alfred, brother to Thomas, and cousin to Randy. He is an accomplished violinist, and successful concert conductor. He acts as the Henry Mancini of the family due to his music scoring style and mostly comedy filmography.

For Anastasia, see here.

Thomas Newman

Another son of Alfred. He has received a total of ten Academy Award nominations, although as of 2011, he has yet to win the award (he does, however, have an Emmy for Six Feet Under). He's the Jack Nitzsche for the Newmans due to his scoring style. For WALL•E'', see AwesomeMusic.Pixar.

Randy Newman

Alfred's nephew, known more as a songwriter but is still famous for his film scores (and songs). He has received twenty Oscar nominations and won twice for Monsters, Inc. and Toy Story 3; he also won three Emmys, one for Cop Rock and two for Monk. He's the Newman family's own Elmer Bernstein for his own scoring style and having actually worked with Bernstein on ¡Three Amigos!. See AwesomeMusic.Disney and AwesomeMusic.Pixar for more.

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