Lalo Schifrin

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Composer Born Boris Claudio Schifrin on June 21, 1932 in Buenos Aires, Argentina

If he’d never done anything else, the Argentine’s indelible score for the “Mission Impossible” TV series in the 1960s would be enough to enshrine him in entertainment lore. But that’s just the tip of the composer-conductor-arranger-pianist’s iceberg.

The son of the concertmaster of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Buenos Aires, Schifrin studied music and law in Argentina, then attended the Paris Conservatory in the early 1950s and worked in Europe as a jazz pianist. Back in Argentina, he formed a big band and met Dizzy Gillespie, writing the suite “Gillespiana” and joining the trumpeter’s quintet in 1960.

In addition to “Mission Impossible,” his scores included “Mannix” and the films “Cool Hand Luke,” “Bullitt” and “Dirty Harry.” Straddling the worlds of jazz and classical, he spent five years as musical director of the Paris Philharmonic Orchestra and has served as guest conductor with numerous orchestras worldwide, while collaborating with such jazz figures as Sarah Vaughan, Ella Fitzgerald, Stan Getz and Count Basie. Schifrin also wrote the finale for the 1990 World Cup in Italy that introduced the Three Tenors, and has written many widely performed classical works.

— Richard Cromelin for the Los Angeles Times June 18, 2010

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