Yesterday, the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce unveiled a long overdue Walk of Fame star for the late Jerry Goldsmith, who over his five-decades long career composed five Star Trek feature films and themes for two of the TV series.
He won an Oscar for his score for The Omen in 1977, but was nominated for 17 additional ones, including a nod for 1979’s Star Trek: The Motion Picture. Some of his most memorable non-Trek scores, as hard as they are to narrow down to a few, include Chinatown, Patton, Planet of the Apes, Alien, Mulan, The Boys from Brazil, and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
His Star Trek films were Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Star Trek V: The Final Frontier, Star Trek: First Contact, Star Trek: Insurrection and Star Trek Nemesis. His theme for The Motion Picture was used for the main title theme for Star Trek: The Next Generation and he composed the theme for Star Trek: Voyager, for which he won an Emmy.
The ceremony was lead by Leron Gubler, President & CEO Hollywood Chamber of Commerce, who noted the following when giving an overview of Goldsmith’s career:
Jerry’s music is played virtually every hour of every day around the world. This is in part due to his many contributions to the big and small screen incarnations of the legendary Star Trek. He scored five of the movies for the franchise and is heralded theme for Star Trek: The Motion Picture because the well-known signature for the long-running TV series Star Trek: The Next Generation.
(L-R) Paul Williams, Carol Goldsmith (wife), Aaron Goldsmith (son), Charles Fox and David Newman attend the posthumous Walk of Fame ceremony for composer Jerry Goldsmith at 6752 Hollywood boulevard in Hollywood, on May 9, 2017. ( CHRIS DELMAS/AFP/Getty Images)
Also speaking at the event was composer David Newman (Ice Age, Tarzan), who worked with Goldsmith as a young musician fresh out of school in the 70s. He spoke about Goldsmith’s music and his experiences with him, including this story about Star Trek:
I played violin on [Star Trek: The Motion Picture]. I watched Jerry struggle with this. He was trying to find a theme and he was still kind of in his early sort of mature style and I think they wanted a more kind of bombastic theme. And I watched him make his original score into what the score became. And for a young person that eventually wanted to be a film composer, it was a lesson like nothing else. Every Goldsmith movie, you felt like you were in something special.
You can watch the entire ceremony below (courtesy of Variety):
Star Trek Tribute to Jerry Goldsmith
The 2005 Special Edition DVD for Star Trek: First Contact included a tribute to Goldsmith’s work, with commentary from many stars and behind-the-scenes luminaries. You can watch that below.
Star Trek takes up a lot of space on the Walk of Fame
Goldsmith isn’t the only Star Trek vet with a star on Hollywood Boulevard. Others include LeVar Burton, James Doohan, Whoopi Goldberg, DeForest Kelley, Walter Koenig, Nichelle Nichols, Leonard Nimoy, William Shatner, Patrick Stewart, George Takei, Michael Westmore, Michael Westmore, Jr., and of course, Gene Roddenberry, among dozens of Trek guest stars like Kirstie Alley, Michael Ansara, Jill Ireland, and Ricardo Montalban.
Leonard Nimoy receiving his star on Hollywood Walk of Fame, Jan. 16, 1985 in Los Angeles., with some familiar faces by his side. (AP Photo/Wally Fong)
More info at walkoffame.com.
Wow. That was waaaaaaaay overdue.
And not just because of Trek. Goldsmith was awesome!
But I do so love the TMP score.
I’m shocked this is only happening now. Goldsmith was a giant, and is easily one of the top ten film composers of all time. Hollywood… blah, blah, blah.
And TV. His theme from “The Waltons” is perfect.
A lot of people are shocked it took so long… and I think that’s because they don’t realize getting a star is actually, largely, an exercise in vanity for oneself.
Google “How to get a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame” and read the Time article on it.
As I understood it it was merely a matter of money and garnering enough support. Not much else. So it is actually surprising it was done posthumously.
I can’t believe he didn’t have a star already. His TV work was incredible (Man from Uncle and Room 222, for two), and the movies, including Patton, Our Man Flint, Star Trek and many, many others. Well, lots of great actors never were awarded Oscars, too. In the 80s and 90s, friends and I would choose one movie over another to attend solely because of Goldsmith’s score.
An amazing composer, Planet of the Apes score was way ahead of its time.
His Alien score is pretty good too!
He was robbed of an Oscar for ST:TMP. Somehow, “A Little Romance” (Raise you hand if you remember it. Anyone?) won instead. The Academy was bonkers that year, with “All That Jazz” winning best original song instead of the now-classic “Rainbow Connection”.
I recall and the signature piece was a Vivaldi piece. A very nice tune but not an original Georges Delerue writing. There was original music in it of course. And it was well done and rather appropriate for the film. But even at the time you knew it wouldn’t have the the staying power or the cultural relevance of the Goldsmith Star Trek score. I was 14 years old at the time and was crushed when I heard the winner that night.
Watched him conduct a collection of his music, including a half entirely devoted to Trek, at the Barbican using the LSO. Truly masterful.
Well, all the other posters have said it before me, but one thing yet to be mentioned is that I’ve always dug his Jazz. Does anyone know of any collection of his Jazz works?
Don’t know of a collection, but if you like his jazz, you must have his score on CD from CITY OF FEAR (1959). Also saw an episode of ALFRED HITCHCOCK HOUR awhile back on MeTV with a similar score. Great stuff!
Correction: What I saw was an episode of THRILLER with a great jazz score by Jerry Goldsmith. I recall it as a non-horror episode, a murder mystery. Great bongo riffs!
Long before TMP (well, a few years, anyways) I loved the soundtrack for Logan’s Run. With the recent release of the 2 cd full score came a handful of liner notes that explained the concepts behind it and gave me a new appreciation for it. Goldsmith also gave us the Omen score as well. Truly a giant.
Finally!
I feel incredibly lucky to have seen Goldsmith conduct the LSO playing his own film music
So happy this finally happened!!
Happy to hear this overdue news. Thank you, TrekMovie!
RIP Jerry Goldsmith.
I miss the music maestro.
Way overdue.
Congratulation to Jerry Goldsmith that finally can get into Hollywood Walk of Fame For Star Trek and Other Work.
So Chris Pratt gets a star this year but Jerry Goldsmith gets one 13 years after his passing. Sigh…