The renowned French film composer Georges Delerue created over 350 scores for cinema and television. His numerous important awards include the Rome Prize (1949), Emmy Award (1968 - Our World), Genie Award (1986 - Sword Of Gideon), ACE Award (1991 - The Josephine Baker Story) and Academy Award in 1979 for A Little Romance and 4 other Academy Nominations (1969 - Anne of the Thousand Days, 1973 - The Day of the Dolphin, 1977 - Julia and 1985 - Agnes of God). The Paris daily, Le Figaro, referred to him in 1981 as the "Mozart of cinema," and he was the first and perhaps only composer to win 3 consecutive Cesar Awards (1979 - Get Out Your Handkerchiefs, 1980 - Love on the Run and 1981 - The Last Metro) plus 5 other Cesar Nominations (1977 - Le Grand Escogriffe and Police Python 357, 1983 - La Passante, 1984 - L’été Meurtrier and 1993 Dien Bien Phu). He was a Commander of Arts and Letters, one of France’s highest honors.

Delerue’s career was diverse. He composed frequently for major avant-garde directors, most often François Truffaut, but also for Jean-Luc Godard’s film Contempt, and for Alain Resnais, Louis Malle, and Bernardo Bertolucci. He also worked on several Hollywood productions such as Oliver Stone’s Platoon and Curly Sue.

Delerue died from a heart attack at the age of 67, just after the recording of the last cue for the soundtrack to Rich In Love. He is buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery in Glendale, California. Of his few "classical" works, the Concertino for Trumpet and Piano is one of his most representative. It is in three movements, Allegro, Tres Lent and Vivace.

-- Kendall Briggs