Henry Mancini

1924–1994

Moon River and The Pink Panther

Henry Mancini was born in Cleveland, Ohio, in 1924 and raised in the steel town of West Aliquippa, Pennsylvania, where his father, an Italian immigrant, taught him the flute. He briefly attended the Juilliard School before being drafted in World War II. After the war he joined the Glenn Miller Orchestra, then led by Tex Beneke, as pianist and arranger, a background in big-band jazz that shaped everything he wrote.

In 1952 Mancini joined Universal-International's music department, where he contributed to scores for more than a hundred films, including The Glenn Miller Story and Orson Welles's Touch of Evil. His cool, jazzy theme for the TV detective series Peter Gunn (1958) became a hit and began a long collaboration with director Blake Edwards.

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961) made Mancini a star. Its song "Moon River," with lyrics by Johnny Mercer, won the Academy Award, as did the score. The Pink Panther (1963) followed, and its sly, tiptoeing saxophone theme became one of the most recognizable pieces of music in the world. Days of Wine and Roses, Charade and Hatari! showed his gift for melody and his inventive use of instruments.

Mancini won four Academy Awards and twenty Grammy Awards, and his albums sold millions of copies. He remained active as a conductor and composer until shortly before his death in Los Angeles in 1994, and his themes remain among the most widely recorded in popular music.

THE ART

Music by Henry Mancini

Art celebrating his film scores. Click any piece to view it larger.

THE FILMS

The Story and the Score

Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961)

The Story

Holly Golightly, a free-spirited New York party girl who lives on gifts from wealthy men, befriends a struggling writer who moves into her building. As they grow closer, Holly's hidden past and her fear of being caged threaten their relationship. Audrey Hepburn stars in Blake Edwards's adaptation of Truman Capote's novella.

The Music

Mancini won two Oscars, for the score and for "Moon River," which Hepburn sings on her fire escape. The song captures Holly's longing and became a standard. Mancini's elegant, jazz-tinged score gives the film its sophisticated charm and made him one of the most popular composers of his era.

The Pink Panther (1963)

The Story

Bumbling French police inspector Jacques Clouseau pursues a gentleman jewel thief known as the Phantom, who plans to steal a famous diamond, the Pink Panther, at a ski resort. Clouseau has no idea that his own wife is the thief's accomplice. David Niven and Peter Sellers star in Blake Edwards's comedy.

The Music

Mancini's sly, tiptoeing saxophone theme accompanies the animated opening titles and became one of the most recognizable themes in film. Jazzy, playful music captures the film's blend of sophistication and slapstick. The theme was so popular that the animated panther from the titles went on to a career of its own.