Roy Webb


Royden Denslow Webb was an American film music composer. One of the charter members of ASCAP, Webb has hundreds of film music credits to his name, mainly with RKO Pictures. He is best known for film noir and horror film scores, in particular for the films of Val Lewton.

Biography

Born in Manhattan, New York, Webb orchestrated and conducted for the Broadway stage before moving to Hollywood in the late 1920s to work as music director for Radio Pictures, later RKO Pictures. He remained at RKO until 1955, then worked freelance for several years, scoring several episodes of Wagon Train. Webb is credited as composer or arranger on more than 200 films, and received Academy Award nominations for Quality Street, My Favorite Wife, I Married a Witch, Joan of Paris, The Fallen Sparrow, The Fighting Seabees, and The [Enchanted Cottage (1945 film)|The Enchanted Cottage]. His piano concerto from The Enchanted Cottage was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Constantin Bakaleinikoff, in concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 1945. In 1961, a house fire destroyed Webb's manuscripts, including film scores and unpublished concert music, after which Webb ceased composing. Webb died in 1982 from a heart attack at 94.
An alumnus of Columbia University, Webb wrote the fight song "Roar, Lion, Roar" for his alma mater in 1925. Several cues composed by Webb were used in the newsreel montage of Kane's life in Citizen Kane. Several cues composed by Webb replaced those by Bernard Herrmann in The Magnificent Ambersons after the film was re-edited. Webb also composed several cues for This is Cinerama, the first Cinerama production in 1952.
The Christopher Palmer Collection of Roy Webb Scores is held at Syracuse University, New York.

Selected filmography

Our Betters Down to Their Last Yacht Sylvia Scarlett Becky Sharp Enchanted April Stage Door The Woman I Love Quality Street Room Service Bringing Up Baby Arizona Legion The Great Man Votes In Name Only Abe Lincoln in Illinois My Favorite Wife Curtain Call Stranger on the Third Floor Mr. and Mrs. Smith I Married a Witch Joan of Paris The Magnificent Ambersons .The Big Street Cat People Hitler's Children The Seventh Victim Journey into Fear I Walked with a Zombie The Leopard Man The Fallen Sparrow The Falcon in Danger Gangway for Tomorrow The Falcon Out West Experiment Perilous Tall in the Saddle The Fighting Seabees The Curse of the Cat People Murder, My Sweet Bride by Mistake The Seventh Cross The Enchanted Cottage The Body Snatcher Back to Bataan Two O'Clock Courage The Spiral Staircase Notorious The Locket Bedlam Out of the Past They Won't Believe Me I Remember Mama Holiday Affair Mighty Joe Young The Window Easy Living My Friend Irma The Secret Fury The White Tower Vendetta Where Danger Lives Gambling House Flying Leathernecks Fixed Bayonets Sealed Cargo Operation Secret This is Cinerama Second Chance Split Second Houdini The Raid Dangerous Mission Track of the Cat Blood Alley Marty The Sea Chase Our Miss Brooks The Search for Bridey Murphy The Girl He Left Behind The River Changes The Secret Affair Shoot-out at Medicine Bend