Leigh Harline

Leigh Adrian Harline (March 26, 1907 – December 10, 1969) was a film composer.

Career

Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, he worked for various radio stations before joining the Walt Disney studios in 1932 as arranger and scorer. He won the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score and the Academy Award for Best Original Song (for "When You Wish Upon a Star") for Disney's Pinocchio (1940). The tune later become the theme for Disney's television series.

A graduate of the University of Utah, Harline was a musical director for local Los Angeles radio when he was hired by Walt Disney to score the Silly Symphonies cartoon series in the 1930s. Together with Frank Churchill, Larry Morey and Paul J. Smith, Harline was responsible for such Disney-film tunes as "I'm Wishing," "Whistle While You Work," "Heigh Ho," and "Some Day My Prince Will Come."

Harline left Disney in 1941 to compose for other studios. His credits include Road to Utopia (1945),The Bachelor and the Bobby-Soxer (1947), The Boy with Green Hair (1948),Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1948), Monkey Business (1952), 23 Paces to Baker Street (1956), Ten North Frederick (1958), The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker (1959), The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm (1962), and 7 Faces of Dr. Lao (1964).

Harline was a Latter-day Saint.[1] He died from complications of throat cancer, and is buried in Valhalla Memorial Park Cemetery.