Lalo Schifrin facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Lalo Schifrin
Schifrin in Cologne, Germany, July 2006
Background information
Birth name	Boris Claudio Schifrin
Born	(1932-06-21)June 21, 1932 Buenos Aires, Argentina
Died	June 26, 2025(2025-06-26) (aged 93) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Education	University of Buenos Aires Conservatoire de Paris
Genres	Jazz big band rock contemporary classical
Occupation(s)	Musician composer arranger conductor
Instruments	Piano keyboards
Years active	1952–2025
Labels	Tico Roulette Audio Fidelity MGM Verve Colpix Colgems Dot Warner Bros. Paramount EntrActe CTI Tabu Palo Alto Atlantic Aleph

Lalo Schifrin (born Boris Claudio Schifrin; June 21, 1932 – June 26, 2025) was an Argentine-American musician. He was a talented pianist, composer, arranger, and conductor. Schifrin became famous for creating music for many movies and TV shows. His music often mixed jazz and Latin American sounds with traditional orchestra music.

Some of his most well-known songs include the main themes from Mission: Impossible (1966) and Mannix (1967). He also wrote music for popular films like Cool Hand Luke (1967), Bullitt (1968), Enter the Dragon (1973), and the Rush Hour movies (1998–2007). Schifrin worked a lot with actor Clint Eastwood on movies like the Dirty Harry series. He even composed the famous fanfare for Paramount Pictures that was used for many years.

Lalo Schifrin won five Grammy Awards during his career. He was also nominated for six Academy Awards and four Emmy Awards. In 2019, he received a special Honorary Academy Award for his amazing work in music.

Life and Music Career

Early Life and Education

Lalo Schifrin was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina, on June 21, 1932. His birth name was Boris Claudio Schifrin. "Lalo" was a common nickname for Claudio in Argentina. He later legally changed his name to Lalo in the U.S. to make things simpler.

His father, Luis Schifrin, was a violinist in the Buenos Aires Philharmonic orchestra for 30 years. Lalo started playing piano at age six. He studied with famous teachers like Enrique Barenboim. He also became very interested in jazz music.

Even though he studied law at the University of Buenos Aires, Lalo loved music more. At age 20, he won a scholarship to study music in Paris, France, at the Conservatoire de Paris. He learned from important composers there. At night, he played jazz in clubs around Paris. In 1955, he played piano with the famous bandoneon player Astor Piazzolla.

Becoming a Jazz Composer

After returning to Argentina, Schifrin started a 16-player big band that appeared on TV. He also began writing music for movies, TV, and radio. In 1956, he met the legendary jazz trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. Schifrin offered to write a long piece of music for Gillespie's big band. This piece, called Gillespiana, was recorded in 1960.

In 1960, Schifrin moved to New York City and joined Dizzy Gillespie's jazz group as his pianist and arranger. He wrote another major work for Gillespie called The New Continent. In 1963, he recorded an album with Duke Ellington's saxophonist, Johnny Hodges.

Creating Music for Films

In 1963, a movie studio called Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer asked Schifrin to write music for his first Hollywood film, Rhino!. Schifrin then moved to Los Angeles. He became a citizen of the U.S. in 1969.

Record of Mission: Impossible theme

One of Schifrin's most famous songs is the theme for the TV show Mission: Impossible, which started in 1966. It's a very unique tune because it's written in an unusual 5
4 time signature. The rhythm of the song (dash dash, dot dot) actually spells out "M" and "I" in Morse code. Schifrin also wrote the jazzy theme for the Mannix TV show in 1967.

His music for the 1967 film Cool Hand Luke included a piece called "Tar Sequence." This song was used for many years as the theme for Eyewitness News broadcasts in New York and Australia. Schifrin's music for the 1968 film Coogan's Bluff began his long partnership with actor Clint Eastwood. His strong jazz and blues style was clear in the music for Dirty Harry. The jazzy music for the film Bullitt was recorded in December 1968. In 1973, he combined funk and traditional movie music for the Bruce Lee film Enter the Dragon. He used sounds from China, Korea, and Japan to create the score. This soundtrack sold over 500,000 copies.

Schifrin also composed the 1976 fanfare for Paramount Pictures. This short piece of music was used mainly for their home video releases and later for their TV shows.

Later Works and Legacy

In the 1990s, Schifrin arranged many songs for The Three Tenors concerts, starting with their first concert in Rome in 1990. In the 1998 film Tango, he returned to tango music, which he knew well from his time playing with Piazzolla. He brought traditional tango songs to the film and added his own compositions that mixed tango with jazz.

He started his own record company, Aleph Records, in 1998. He also wrote the main theme for the video game Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell: Pandora Tomorrow. Schifrin even made a small appearance in the 2002 movie Red Dragon. Many of his songs have been used in hip-hop and trip-hop music. For example, Portishead's "Sour Times" uses a sample from Schifrin's "Danube Incident," a theme he wrote for Mission: Impossible.

In 2003, Schifrin was asked to compose a classical piece called Symphonic Impressions of Oman for Sultan Qaboos bin Said. On April 23, 2007, Schifrin performed a concert of his film music in Paris. This concert was recorded for a CD called Lalo Schifrin: Le Concert à Paris.

In 2024, Schifrin invited another composer, Rod Schejtman, to create a symphony dedicated to their home country, Argentina. They composed a 35-minute symphony called "Long Live Freedom." It was a tribute to Argentina's history and combined movie and classical music styles. The symphony premiered at the Teatro Colón on April 5, 2025.

Personal Life

Lalo Schifrin married Sylvia Schor in 1958, and they had two children before divorcing. He then married Donna Cockrell in 1971, and they had a son. His second wife helped manage his music business and record label.

In 2008, Schifrin wrote a book about his life in music called Mission Impossible: My Life in Music. He once said that in music, there are endless choices and possibilities for combining sounds.

Lalo Schifrin passed away from pneumonia in a hospital in Los Angeles on June 26, 2025, at the age of 93.

Works

Selected Film and TV Music

Lalo Schifrin composed music for many famous films and television shows. Here are some of them:

Film

Television

Awards and Recognition

Lalo Schifrin won five Grammy Awards and was nominated for many others. He also received six Oscar nominations and four Emmy Award nominations. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, which honors famous people in entertainment.

In 2016, his Mission: Impossible theme song was added to the Grammy Award Hall of Fame. In 2018, Clint Eastwood gave him a special Academy Honorary Award. This award recognized his unique music style and important contributions to film scoring.

See also

In Spanish: Lalo Schifrin para niños