Paul J. Smith was an Academy Award-winning American music composer, who worked at Disney, where he composed scores for both animated and live-action features.
Smith was born in Calumet, Michigan and after graduating high school, he studied music at The College of Idaho from 1923 to 1925 before he was accepted into the Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Illinois. After being recruited by Walt Disney, he wrote music for various cartoon shorts before helping to score Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs and Pinocchio where, for the latter, he would receive his only Academy Award for Best Original Score. In Fantasia, he is one of the studio employees in the orchestra.
Over the next two decades, Smith would compose more scores for several productions, like Cinderella, The Shaggy Dog, Pollyanna, The Parent Trap, and various True-Life Adventures episodes.
Outside of Disney, he worked on films, like Glamour Girl, Love Happy, Pecos River, About Face, and composed music for the show Leave It to Beaver. Smith also did the stock music for the Blondie series of the late 1940s and early 1950s. His main collaborator and partner was Hazel "Gil" George. She wrote the song title for The Light in the Forest with him and Lawrence Edward Watkin. Another one of Smith’s collaborators were Oliver Wallace, who worked with him on some films, like Cinderella, and George Bruns, who worked with him on some films, like Westward Ho the Wagons!
He died in Glendale, California at age 78. In 1994, he was posthumously honored as a Disney Legend.
Disney Filmography[]
Animated film scores[]
- Thru the Mirror, 1936
- Hawaiian Holiday, 1937
- Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, 1937
- The Practical Pig, 1939
- Pinocchio, 1940
- Bone Trouble, 1940
- Fantasia, 1940 (violinist in orchestra)
- The Fire Chief, 1940
- Pluto's Playmate, 1941
- Canine Caddy, 1941
- A Gentleman's Gentleman, 1941
- Donald Gets Drafted, 1942
- Bambi, 1942 (orchestrator)
- Saludos Amigos, 1943
- Fall Out-Fall In, 1943
- Victory Through Air Power, 1943
- The Old Army Game, 1943
- Home Defense, 1943
- Donald's Off Day, 1944
- Tiger Trouble, 1945
- The Three Caballeros, 1945
- The Eyes Have It, 1945
- Californy 'er Bust, 1945
- Hockey Homicide, 1945
- Song of the South, 1946 (cartoon segments)
- Fun and Fancy Free, 1947 (also songwriter: "Fee-Fi-Fo-Fum")
- Mail Dog, 1947
- Melody Time, 1948 (Pecos Bill and Johnny Appleseed)
- So Dear to My Heart, 1949
- Toy Tinkers, 1949
- Cinderella, 1950
- Trailer Horn, 1950
- Puss Café, 1950
- Motor Mania, 1950
- Pests of the West, 1950
- Food for Feudin', 1950
- Hook, Lion and Sinker, 1950
- Camp Dog, 1950
- Hold That Pose, 1950
- Lion Down, 1951
- Dude Duck, 1951
- Test Pilot Donald, 1951
- Lucky Number, 1951
- R'Coon Dawg, 1951
- Get Rich Quick, 1951
- Cold Turkey, 1951
- Fathers Are People, 1951
- Out of Scale, 1951
- No Smoking, 1951
- Two Gun Goofy, 1952
- Susie the Little Blue Coupe, 1952
- The Little House, 1952
- Trick or Treat, 1952
- Father's Day Off, 1953
- The Simple Things, 1953
Live-action film scores[]
- In Beaver Valley, 1950 includes "Jing-a-Ling", lyrics added by Don Raye
- The Olympic Elk, 1952
- Water Birds, 1952
- Bear Country, 1953
- The Living Desert, 1953
- The Vanishing Prairie, 1954
- 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, 1954
- The Great Locomotive Chase, 1956
- Secrets of Life, 1956
- Westward Ho, the Wagons!, 1956
- Perri, 1957
- The Light in the Forest, 1958
- The Shaggy Dog, 1959
- Pollyanna, 1960
- The Parent Trap, 1961
- Moon Pilot, 1962
- Bon Voyage!, 1962
- In Search of the Castaways, 1962
- Miracle of the White Stallions, 1963
- Yellowstone Cubs, 1963
- Ida, the Offbeat Eagle, 1964
- The Three Lives of Thomasina, 1964
External links[]
Paul Smith on IMDb- Paul Smith at Allmusic
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This page uses content from the English Wikipedia page Paul Smith (composer). The list of authors can be seen in the page history. Text from Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may apply. |
