Henry Mancini

American musician, conductor, composer, writer and arranger who created memorable, elegant melodies and songs such as "Moon River" from Blake Edward's "Breakfast at Tiffany's." Mancini achieved universal popularity with a prolific output of film music, garnering four Oscars and 20 Grammy awards. Mancini won his Oscars for "Moon River," 1962, "Days of Wine and Roses," 1963, the score for "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and "Victor-Victoria" in 1983. He recorded more than 90 albums; six going gold. Mancini changed film and music history by departing from strictly classical music scores to introducing unprecedented contemporary scores to films. By his work, he won respect from others in the music industry and commercial success from the album purchasing public. He wrote his autobiography, "Did They Mention the Music?"

Proud of his Italian-American heritage, Mancini grew up in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania. His father worked in a steel mill and spent his leisure playing flute in the local Sons of Italy band. His dad encouraged Mancini to take up music but his son preferred playing football. Reluctantly, he tinkered with the piano, flute and piccolo while his dad badgered him to practice - until his dad introduced him to jazz, when he changed his mind about music. He joined the school band and played in a dance band. At 13, he was playing the saxophone choruses from his Artie Shaw records. As a teen, he idolized Glenn Miller. In 1937, he won the position of first flutist in the Pennsylvania All-State Band. He graduated from high school in 1942 and went to study classical music at the Carnegie Institute of Technology Music School and then went to the Juilliard School of Music in New York.

During WWII, he served in the Army Air Corps and infantry arranging big band music for the Army band. After the war, he played piano for Glenn Miller's band under the direction of Tex Beneke. With the demise in popularity for swing band music, Mancini came upon financial hardships.