The Oscar-nominated composer who created the iconic fight music for the original Star Trek series and also collaborated with Quincy Jones in order to win an my for their theme to the miniseries Roots, has passed away, at the age of 95 years old. He passed away on Friday due to pneumonia at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Bridgeport, Connecticut, according to his wife, Anita Hall.
After Fried had met Stanley Kubrick in the early 1950’s, he ended up scoring Kubrick’s first four features, Fear and Desire (1953), Killer’s Kiss (1955), The Killing (1956) and Paths of Glory (1957).
Just a year after Fried had gotten an Oscar nomination for Birds Do it, Bees Do It in 1976, a documentary that was about the mating rituals of animals and insects, he won his Emmy for his work on the very first episode of ABC’s Roots.
Fried was born in Manhattan on February 13th, 1928, and was raised in the Bronx by his father, Samuel, and his mother, Selma. Fried’s aunt on his mom’s side, was a pianist and would often provide live music for silent movies.
Fried entered New York’s High School of Music & Art and started playing the oboe.
His love of music grew after Fried entered New York’s High School of Music & Art and was assigned the oboe. He took to that instrument and the tenor sax, then enrolled at Juilliard as an oboe major. After that, Fried received three more Emmy nominations for his compositions for the telefilms The Silent Lovers in 1980 and The Mystic Warrior in 1984, as well as, the miniseries Napoleon and Josephine: A Love Story in 1987.
While more recently, Fried had taught at UCLA, and also played the oboe with the Santa Fe Great Big Jazz Band and Santa Fe Community Orchestra.
Survivors of Fried include his wife and children, Daniel, Debbie, Jonathon, and Josh. As well as six grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
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