John Morris

John Morris (b. 1926) has had a long career of composing for film and television. He was nominated twice for an Academy Award for Mel Brooks’s Blazing Saddles (1975) and The Elephant Man (1981). Also for Brooks, Morris wrote scores to The Producers, The Twelve Chairs, Young Frankenstein, Silent Movie, History of the World: Part 1, High Anxiety, Spaceballs and Life Stinks. Other notable film scores include: Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother, In God We Trust, Clue, Dirty Dancing, Yellowbeard and Ironweed. For television, Morris wrote the theme for Coach, several made for TV movies including Scarlet, Ellen Foster and The Blackwater Lightship, and the 1996 documentary called With God on our Side: The Rise of the Religious Right in America. With Gerald Freedman, John Morris composed the music and co-wrote the book and lyrics for the 1966 Broadway musical A TIME FOR SINGING.