Gerald Fried, Star Trek and Roots Composer, Dead at 95

Gerald Fried, Star Trek and Roots Composer, Dead at 95

Gerald Fried, the Oscar-nominated composer known for scoring the original Star Trek series and Roots, has died at the age of 95.

Fried died on Friday, February 17th, of pneumonia, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

The New York City native scored a number of early Star Trek episodes beginning in 1966. Most notably, he composed the music for the season two episode “Amok Time,” which soundtracked the battle between William Shatner’s Kirk and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock. The music from “Amok Time” was featured on several subsequent episodes of Star Trek, as well as on The Simpsons and Futurama and in the movie The Cable Guy.

In 1977, after original composer Quincy Jones suffered from writers block, Fried was brought on to compose music for the ABC miniseries Roots. He ended up composing the theme song, as well as the underscores for several episodes. For his efforts, Fried was awarded a Primetime Emmy Award.

Over the course of his career, Fried also composed music for televisions series including Gilligan’s Island, Lost in Space, Mission: Impossible, and The Man From U.N.C.L.E. In 1975, his score for the documentary Birds Do It, Bees Do It received an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score.

Fried was also a close friend of Stanley Kubrick and worked on several of his early films, including Fear and Desire, Killer’s Kiss, and Paths of Glory.

 

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