Gerald Fried, a composer who spent decades working on television and nearly a century living in this world, passed away at the age of 95.
According to Variety, Fried passed away from pneumonia on Friday, February 17, at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut.
Following his debut in the early 1950s, Fried went on to compose about 40 films, 40 TV episodes, and thirty TV movies and miniseries. For the 10 hours of the historic TV miniseries Roots that he scored after Quincy Jones provided music for the first two hours, Fried won an Emmy Award in 1977.
Gerald Fried Obituary
Gerald Fried, who was raised in The Bronx and attended The Juilliard School of Music, was born and raised in New York City. After graduating from The High School of Music & Art in 1945, he began his career as a film composer by writing the scores for five of Stanley Kubrick’s initial films.
He started writing and arranging music after relocating to Los Angeles, working with Robert Drasnin on projects like Terror in a Texas Town and The Man from U.N.C.L.E. He also wrote music for the original Star Trek, for which he wrote the iconic musical underscore “The Ritual/Ancient Battle/2nd Kroykah” (now known as “Star Trek fight music”) for the episode “Amok Time.”
His jazz-inspired entrance for the western series Shotgun Slade is one of his TV show themes. Fried was well-known for his work with Quincy Jones on the Emmy Award-winning Roots miniseries score from 1977.
The exotica album Orienta was also orchestrated by Fried. Together with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Clint Eastwood, he shared the 2013 International Samobor Cinema Music Festival’s Golden Pine Award for Lifetime Achievement. His resume includes work on about 300 movies, TV shows, and specials.
Fried lost his 5-year-old son, Zachary, to AIDS (from tainted blood from a blood bank) in December 1987; the incident inspired his screenplay and theatrical piece Morningtime Train. Zachary’s childhood paintings were printed on T-shirts for The Pediatric AIDS Foundation fundraisers.
Fried died of pneumonia on February 17, 2023, four days after his 95th birthday, in Bridgeport, Connecticut.