Heinz Roemheld
Biography
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Heinz Roemheld (Milwaukee, May 1, 1901 – Huntington Beach, California, February 11, 1985) was an American composer.
Born Heinz Eric Roemheld in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, he was one of four children of German immigrant Heinrich Roemheld and his wife Fanny Rauterberg Roemheld. Heinrich was a pharmacist, but all the members of the family were musical. Heinz's brother Edgar (1898-1964) became a conductor, while sister Irmgard (1904-1995) became a well-known Milwaukee music teacher and radio broadcaster.
Roemheld was a child prodigy who began playing the piano at the age of 4. He graduated from the Milwaukee College of Music at 19, and performed in theaters to earn money to study piano in Europe. In 1920, he went to Berlin, where he studied with Hugo Kaun, Ferruccio Busoni, and Egon Petri. While he was there, he appeared in concert with the Berlin Philharmonic.
When he returned to America, Roemheld became involved in music for silent films, both as a pianist and as a conductor. In 1925, he was sent back to Berlin as head of Universal Pictures theaters there, but had to leave in 1929 due to the rise of Nazism.
Back in America, Roemheld moved to Los Angeles and became a prominent cinema composer. He scored some scenes in Gone with the Wind, including the burning of Atlanta, although he was not credited on-screen. In 1942, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for Yankee Doodle Dandy. Among the more than 400 other films for which he composed music were Gentleman Jim, The Lady From Shanghai, The Invisible Man, and Shine On, Harvest Moon.
After World War II, Roemheld once again returned to Germany to become Chief of the Film, Theatre, and Music Section of the Information Central Division of The American Armies in Europe. He continued writing for several major film studios until the late 1950s, and after briefly working in television, he retired in 1964 to concentrate on his classical composition. He is best known for the song "Ruby" from the movie Ruby Gentry (1952), which has become a standard.
He married a former Miss Milwaukee, Emeline Defnet (1901-1980), from whom he was later divorced. They had two daughters, Mary Lou Roemheld, who was married for years to game show host Jack Narz, and Ann, who married game show host Bill Cullen.
Roemheld died on February 11, 1985, at a convalescent home in Huntington Beach after contracting pneumonia three weeks earlier.
| Title | Year | Job | 
|---|---|---|
| Hell's Heroes | 1929 | Original Music Composer | 
| I'm No Angel | 1933 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Invisible Man | 1933 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Sin of Nora Moran | 1933 | Original Music Composer | 
| Bombay Mail | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Easy to Love | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Cross Country Cruise | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Four Frightened People | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Madame Spy | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Fashions of 1934 | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Journal of a Crime | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Merry Wives of Reno | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| A Modern Hero | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Housewife | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Desirable | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| British Agent | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| A Lost Lady | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Madame du Barry | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Ready for Love | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Father Brown, Detective | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Sweet Adeline | 1934 | Original Music Composer | 
| Enter Madame | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Payoff | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Lives of a Bengal Lancer | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Maybe It's Love | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Storm Over the Andes | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Four Hours to Kill! | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Private Worlds | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Love in Bloom | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Mary Jane's Pa | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Girl from 10th Avenue | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Glass Key | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Stranded | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Front Page Woman | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Bright Lights | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Irish in Us | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| We're in the Money | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Last Outpost | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Hands Across the Table | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Dr. Socrates | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| 3 Kids and a Queen | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Peter Ibbetson | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Mary Burns, Fugitive | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| I Found Stella Parish | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| East of Java | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Dangerous | 1935 | Original Music Composer | 
| Rose of the Rancho | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Her Master's Voice | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Tough Guy | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Voice of Bugle Ann | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Story of Louis Pasteur | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Road Gang | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| I Married a Doctor | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Dracula's Daughter | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Golden Arrow | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Hearts Divided | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| The White Angel | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Satan Met a Lady | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Postal Inspector | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Cain and Mabel | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Two in a Crowd | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Three Smart Girls | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Mandarin Mystery | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Gold Diggers of 1937 | 1936 | Original Music Composer | 
| Marked Woman | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| Draegerman Courage | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| Kid Galahad | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Outer Gate | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| It's Love I'm After | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| Alcatraz Island | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Perfect Specimen | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| Stand-In | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| West of Shanghai | 1937 | Original Music Composer | 
| I Met My Love Again | 1938 | Original Music Composer | 
| A Slight Case of Murder | 1938 | Original Music Composer | 
| Love, Honor and Behave | 1938 | Original Music Composer | 
| Gold Diggers in Paris | 1938 | Original Music Composer | 
| Men Are Such Fools | 1938 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Young in Heart | 1938 | Original Music Composer | 
| Four's a Crowd | 1938 | Original Music Composer | 
| King of the Underworld | 1939 | Original Music Composer | 
| Nancy Drew... Reporter | 1939 | Original Music Composer | 
| You Can't Get Away with Murder | 1939 | Original Music Composer | 
| Nancy Drew... Trouble Shooter | 1939 | Original Music Composer | 
| Nancy Drew and the Hidden Staircase | 1939 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Roaring Twenties | 1939 | Original Music Composer | 
| A Child Is Born | 1939 | Original Music Composer | 
| Invisible Stripes | 1939 | Original Music Composer | 
| Brother Rat and a Baby | 1940 | Original Music Composer | 
| It All Came True | 1940 | Original Music Composer | 
| Brother Orchid | 1940 | Original Music Composer | 
| Lady with Red Hair | 1940 | Original Music Composer | 
| Four Mothers | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| Flight from Destiny | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Strawberry Blonde | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Wagons Roll at Night | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| Thieves Fall Out | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| Affectionately Yours | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| Out of the Fog | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| Riders of Death Valley | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| Law of the Tropics | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| Blues in the Night | 1941 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Male Animal | 1942 | Original Music Composer | 
| Yankee Doodle Dandy | 1942 | Original Music Composer | 
| Gentleman Jim | 1942 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Hard Way | 1943 | Original Music Composer | 
| Find the Blackmailer | 1943 | Original Music Composer | 
| Make Your Own Bed | 1944 | Original Music Composer | 
| Janie | 1944 | Original Music Composer | 
| Too Young to Know | 1945 | Original Music Composer | 
| Curley | 1947 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Flame | 1947 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Lady from Shanghai | 1947 | Original Music Composer | 
| On Our Merry Way | 1948 | Original Music Composer | 
| I, Jane Doe | 1948 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Fuller Brush Man | 1948 | Original Music Composer | 
| Station West | 1948 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Girl from Manhattan | 1948 | Original Music Composer | 
| My Dear Secretary | 1948 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Lucky Stiff | 1949 | Original Music Composer | 
| Mr. Soft Touch | 1949 | Original Music Composer | 
| Miss Grant Takes Richmond | 1949 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Good Humor Man | 1950 | Original Music Composer | 
| Kill the Umpire | 1950 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Fuller Brush Girl | 1950 | Original Music Composer | 
| Union Station | 1950 | Original Music Composer | 
| Valentino | 1951 | Original Music Composer | 
| Insurance Investigator | 1951 | Original Music Composer | 
| Chicago Calling | 1951 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Big Trees | 1952 | Original Music Composer | 
| Jack and the Beanstalk | 1952 | Original Music Composer | 
| Loan Shark | 1952 | Original Music Composer | 
| Ruby Gentry | 1952 | Original Music Composer | 
| Female on the Beach | 1955 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Square Jungle | 1955 | Original Music Composer | 
| There's Always Tomorrow | 1956 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Creature Walks Among Us | 1956 | Original Music Composer | 
| Away All Boats | 1956 | Original Music Composer | 
| Pillars of the Sky | 1956 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Mole People | 1956 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Tall T | 1957 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Monster That Challenged the World | 1957 | Original Music Composer | 
| The Land Unknown | 1957 | Original Music Composer | 
| Decision at Sundown | 1957 | Original Music Composer | 
| Ride Lonesome | 1959 | Original Music Composer |