
Roy Webb
Biography
Roy Webb (né Royden Denslow Webb; October 3, 1888 – December 10, 1982) was an American film music composer. Webb has hundreds of film music credits to his name, mainly with RKO Pictures. He is best known for film noir and horror film scores, in particular for the films of Val Lewton. Born in Manhattan, New York, Webb orchestrated and conducted for the Broadway stage, before moving to Hollywood in the late 1920s to work as music director for Radio Pictures, later RKO Pictures. He remained at RKO until 1955, then worked freelance for several years, including scoring several episodes of Wagon Train. Webb is credited as composer or arranger on more than 200 films, and received Academy Award nominations for Quality Street (1937), My Favorite Wife (1940), I Married a Witch (1942), Joan of Paris (1942), The Fallen Sparrow (1943), The Fighting Seabees (1944), and The Enchanted Cottage (1945). His piano concerto from The Enchanted Cottage was performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Constantin Bakaleinikoff, in concert at the Hollywood Bowl in 1945. In 1961, a house fire destroyed Webb's manuscripts including film scores and unpublished concert music, after which Webb ceased composing. Webb died in 1982 from a heart attack at the age of 94. An alumnus of Columbia University, Webb wrote the fight song “Roar, Lion, Roar” for his alma mater in 1925. Several cues composed by Webb were used in the newsreel montage of Kane's life in Citizen Kane. Several cues composed by Webb replaced those by Bernard Herrmann in The Magnificent Ambersons after the film was re-edited. Webb also composed several cues (uncredited) for This is Cinerama, the first Cinerama production in 1952. The Christopher Palmer Collection of Roy Webb Scores is held at Syracuse University, New York.
| Title | Year | Job |
|---|---|---|
| The Delightful Rogue | 1929 | Original Music Composer |
| Seven Keys to Baldpate | 1929 | Original Music Composer |
| Girl of the Port | 1930 | Original Music Composer |
| Alias French Gertie | 1930 | Original Music Composer |
| Inside the Lines | 1930 | Original Music Composer |
| Shooting Straight | 1930 | Original Music Composer |
| Conspiracy | 1930 | Original Music Composer |
| Topaze | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| Our Betters | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| Diplomaniacs | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| Emergency Call | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| Blind Adventure | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| Ann Vickers | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| Aggie Appleby, Maker of Men | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| The Right To Romance | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| If I Were Free | 1933 | Original Music Composer |
| Hips, Hips, Hooray! | 1934 | Original Music Composer |
| This Man Is Mine | 1934 | Original Music Composer |
| Strictly Dynamite | 1934 | Original Music Composer |
| Cockeyed Cavaliers | 1934 | Original Music Composer |
| Let's Try Again | 1934 | Original Music Composer |
| Down to Their Last Yacht | 1934 | Original Music Composer |
| Kentucky Kernels | 1934 | Original Music Composer |
| By Your Leave | 1934 | Original Music Composer |
| The Nitwits | 1935 | Original Music Composer |
| The Arizonian | 1935 | Original Music Composer |
| Alice Adams | 1935 | Original Music Composer |
| Sylvia Scarlett | 1935 | Original Music Composer |
| Two in the Dark | 1936 | Original Music Composer |
| Chatterbox | 1936 | Original Music Composer |
| Silly Billies | 1936 | Original Music Composer |
| The Ex-Mrs. Bradford | 1936 | Original Music Composer |
| The Last of the Mohicans | 1936 | Original Music Composer |
| The Plough and the Stars | 1936 | Original Music Composer |
| We're on the Jury | 1937 | Original Music Composer |
| Quality Street | 1937 | Original Music Composer |
| You Can't Buy Luck | 1937 | Original Music Composer |
| High Flyers | 1937 | Original Music Composer |
| Bringing Up Baby | 1938 | Original Music Composer |
| The Saint in New York | 1938 | Original Music Composer |
| Blond Cheat | 1938 | Original Music Composer |
| A Man to Remember | 1938 | Original Music Composer |
| The Mad Miss Manton | 1938 | Original Music Composer |
| Trouble in Sundown | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| Love Affair | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| Sorority House | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| Five Came Back | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| Timber Stampede | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| Bachelor Mother | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| In Name Only | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| Bad Lands | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| That's Right – You're Wrong | 1939 | Original Music Composer |
| Abe Lincoln in Illinois | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Bullet Code | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Curtain Call | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Irene | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| My Favorite Wife | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| You Can't Fool Your Wife | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| A Bill of Divorcement | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Millionaires in Prison | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Stage to Chino | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Stranger on the Third Floor | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Wildcat Bus | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| I'm Still Alive | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Mexican Spitfire Out West | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| Kitty Foyle | 1940 | Original Music Composer |
| The Saint In Palm Springs | 1941 | Original Music Composer |
| A Girl, a Guy, and a Gob | 1941 | Original Music Composer |
| The Saint's Vacation | 1941 | Original Music Composer |
| Tom, Dick and Harry | 1941 | Original Music Composer |
| Parachute Battalion | 1941 | Original Music Composer |
| The Bandit Trail | 1941 | Original Music Composer |
| Look Who's Laughing | 1941 | Original Music Composer |
| Weekend for Three | 1941 | Original Music Composer |
| Joan of Paris | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| Obliging Young Lady | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| The Falcon Takes Over | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| My Favorite Spy | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| The Big Street | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| Bandit Ranger | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| The Falcon's Brother | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| Here We Go Again | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| I Married a Witch | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| The Navy Comes Through | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| Seven Miles from Alcatraz | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| Cat People | 1942 | Original Music Composer |
| Hitler's Children | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| Journey into Fear | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| The Falcon Strikes Back | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| Ladies' Day | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| Flight for Freedom | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| Bombardier | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| The Leopard Man | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| Mr. Lucky | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| The Falcon in Danger | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| Petticoat Larceny | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| The Fallen Sparrow | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| A Lady Takes a Chance | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| The Seventh Victim | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| Gangway for Tomorrow | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| The Ghost Ship | 1943 | Original Music Composer |
| Action in Arabia | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| The Falcon Out West | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| The Curse of the Cat People | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| The Seventh Cross | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| Bride by Mistake | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| The Master Race | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| Tall in the Saddle | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| Rainbow Island | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| Murder, My Sweet | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| Experiment Perilous | 1944 | Original Music Composer |
| Two O'Clock Courage | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| Betrayal from the East | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| The Enchanted Cottage | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| The Body Snatcher | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| Those Endearing Young Charms | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| Love, Honor and Goodbye | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| Sing Your Way Home | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| Cornered | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| Dick Tracy | 1945 | Original Music Composer |
| The Spiral Staircase | 1946 | Original Music Composer |
| Badman's Territory | 1946 | Original Music Composer |
| Bedlam | 1946 | Original Music Composer |
| Without Reservations | 1946 | Original Music Composer |
| The Well Groomed Bride | 1946 | Original Music Composer |
| Notorious | 1946 | Original Music Composer |
| The Locket | 1946 | Original Music Composer |
| Sinbad the Sailor | 1947 | Original Music Composer |
| The Perfect Marriage | 1947 | Original Music Composer |
| Easy Come, Easy Go | 1947 | Original Music Composer |
| Riff-Raff | 1947 | Original Music Composer |
| They Won't Believe Me | 1947 | Original Music Composer |
| Crossfire | 1947 | Original Music Composer |
| Magic Town | 1947 | Original Music Composer |
| Out of the Past | 1947 | Original Music Composer |
| I Remember Mama | 1948 | Original Music Composer |
| Race Street | 1948 | Original Music Composer |
| Rachel and the Stranger | 1948 | Original Music Composer |
| Blood on the Moon | 1948 | Original Music Composer |
| Bad Men of Tombstone | 1949 | Original Music Composer |
| The Window | 1949 | Original Music Composer |
| Roughshod | 1949 | Original Music Composer |
| Mighty Joe Young | 1949 | Original Music Composer |
| Make Mine Laughs | 1949 | Original Music Composer |
| Easy Living | 1949 | Original Music Composer |
| My Friend Irma | 1949 | Original Music Composer |
| Holiday Affair | 1949 | Original Music Composer |
| The Secret Fury | 1950 | Original Music Composer |
| The White Tower | 1950 | Original Music Composer |
| Branded | 1950 | Original Music Composer |
| Where Danger Lives | 1950 | Original Music Composer |
| Vendetta | 1950 | Original Music Composer |
| Gambling House | 1950 | Original Music Composer |
| Hard, Fast and Beautiful | 1951 | Original Music Composer |
| Fixed Bayonets! | 1951 | Original Music Composer |
| At Sword's Point | 1952 | Original Music Composer |
| Clash by Night | 1952 | Original Music Composer |
| The Lusty Men | 1952 | Original Music Composer |
| Split Second | 1953 | Original Music Composer |
| Affair with a Stranger | 1953 | Original Music Composer |
| Houdini | 1953 | Original Music Composer |
| Second Chance | 1953 | Original Music Composer |
| Alaska Seas | 1954 | Original Music Composer |
| She Couldn't Say No | 1954 | Original Music Composer |
| Dangerous Mission | 1954 | Original Music Composer |
| The Raid | 1954 | Original Music Composer |
| Track of the Cat | 1954 | Original Music Composer |
| The Americano | 1955 | Original Music Composer |
| Underwater! | 1955 | Original Music Composer |
| Marty | 1955 | Original Music Composer |
| The Sea Chase | 1955 | Original Music Composer |
| The Kentuckian | 1955 | Original Music Composer |
| Bengazi | 1955 | Original Music Composer |
| Blood Alley | 1955 | Original Music Composer |
| Our Miss Brooks | 1956 | Original Music Composer |
| The First Texan | 1956 | Original Music Composer |
| The Search for Bridey Murphy | 1956 | Original Music Composer |
| The Girl He Left Behind | 1956 | Original Music Composer |
| Top Secret Affair | 1957 | Original Music Composer |
| Shoot-Out At Medicine Bend | 1957 | Original Music Composer |
| Teacher's Pet | 1958 | Original Music Composer |