Biography for
Henry Mancini More at IMDbPro »

Date of Birth

16 April 1924, Cleveland, Ohio, USA

Date of Death

14 June 1994, Los Angeles, California, USA (cancer)

Birth Name

Enrico Nicola Mancini

Mini Biography

Born in Cleveland, Ohio, but brought up in Pennsylvania, where he played the flute in a local band, as a youth, before sending some arrangements to Benny Goodman. Goodman offered him a job and, after serving in WWII, he joined the rearranged Glenn Miller band. In 1952, he was given a two-week assignment at Universal to work on an Bud Abbott and Lou Costello film and ended up staying for six years. Success with The Glenn Miller Story (1954) allowed him to score many other films, helping along the way to change the style of film background music by injecting jazz into the traditional orchestral arrangements of the 1950s. He was nominated for 18 Oscars and won four; in addition, he won 20 Grammys and 2 Emmys, made over 50 albums and had 500 works published. Mancini collaborated extensively with Blake Edwards -- firstly on TV's "Peter Gunn" (1958), then on Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), which won him two Oscars; he won further Oscars for the titles song for Days of Wine and Roses (1962) and the score for Victor Victoria (1982); he will be best-remembered for the theme tune for The Pink Panther (1963).

IMDb Mini Biography By: Kieran Lee <kjl@psych.st-andrews.ac.uk>

Spouse

Virginia O Connor'

(13 September 1947 - 14 June 1994) (his death) 3 children

Trivia

Father, with Ginny Mancini, of twin daughters: singer Monica Mancini, Felice Mancini (head of Mr. Holland's Opus Foundation) and son Chris Mancini.

No less prolific a recording artist than he was a film/TV composer, his many albums, mostly for RCA, sold in the millions, and included: "Music from 'Peter Gunn'" (1958), "Music from 'Mr. Lucky'" and "The Mancini Touch" (1959), "Combo" and "Mr. Lucky Goes Latin" (1960), "Breakfast at Tiffany's" (1961), "Our Man in Hollywood" and "Charade" (1963), "The Concert Sound of Henry Mancini", "The Best of Mancini" and "The Pink Panther" (1964), "'The Second Time Around' and Other Favorites" (1966), "Mancini '67" and "Encore!: More of the Concert Sound of Henry Mancini" (1967), "A Warm Shade of Ivory" (1968), "Six Hours Past Sunset" (1969), and "Big Screen - Little Screen" (1972). He also had a Number 1 single with "Love Theme from 'Romeo and Juliet'" in 1969.

For Hatari! (1962), he wrote a brief piece of incidental music to accompany a scene where a baby elephant is taken for a walk. To Mancini's astonishment, it became an international hit as "Baby Elephant Walk," and was re-recorded by a large number of artists and in many styles.

Pictured on a 37¢ USA commemorative stamp issued in his honor, 13 April 2004. The titles of the following films and TV shows, for which Mancini wrote the score and/or songs, are listed on the stamp: Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961); Days of Wine and Roses (1962); Charade (1963); "Peter Gunn" (1958)'; The Pink Panther (1963); Two for the Road (1967); Touch of Evil (1958); Hatari! (1962); The Great Race (1965); Experiment in Terror (1962); Victor Victoria (1982); Dear Heart (1964) and "The Thorn Birds" (1983). The Pink Panther cartoon character is in the lower left corner, pointing to Mancini.

Was reassigned to the band unit shortly after he joined the U.S. Army in World War II. This actually saved his life, as the unit to which he'd originally been assigned was wiped out to a man in the Battle of the Bulge.

Inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1984.

He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 6821 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California.

Personal Quotes

[on Julie Andrews] I admire Julie tremendously. She's never hit a bad note in her life.

[In a speech during a tribute to Jerry Goldsmith, noting Goldsmith's versatility, musical genius, and ability to completely change his style for each score he wrote] Frankly, he scares the hell out of the rest of us.

[on the laugh-out-loud humor of The Party (1968)] That's what I get for writing a nice song for a comedy. Nobody's going to hear a note of it.