Lalo Schifrin, Grammy-Winning Composer For 'Mission: Impossible' And More, Dies Aged 93

TV & Film

Jun 28

Grammy-winning composer Lalo Schifrin has passed away at 94, from complications related to pneumonia, on Thursday. Born in Argentina, Schifrin came to the United States around 1960, and his career started to take off. Known for incorporating elements of Jazz and Latin American music into his work, his most famous compositions include the opening themes to both Mission Impossible and Mannix, alongside a slew of films scores including Bullit, Cool Hand Luke, the Dirty Harry series, the Rush Hour trilogy, THX 1138, Enter the Dragon, The Four Musketeers, Voyage of the Damned, The Eagle Has Landed and The Amityville Horror, among others.

In 2018, Lalo Schifrin received an honorary Oscar, only the third composer in the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences. Clint Eastwood made the presentation, and Kathy Bates made a short little speech about Schifrin’s skills: “His work cannot be easily labeled. Is what he creates jazz? Is it classical, contemporary, popular? The answer is yes, it is all of those things. Lalo is a true Renaissance man: a performer at the piano, a painter with notes, a conductor and composer who has scored some of the most memorable films of the past half-century.” He will be remembered as a legend.

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