Paul Smith (composer)

Paul J. Smith (October 30, 1906 – January 25, 1985) was an American music composer and violinist best known for his work at Disney.^[1]

Smith was born in Calumet, Michigan on October 30, 1906. Upon graduating high school, he studied music at The College of Idaho from 1923 to 1925 before he was accepted into the Bush Conservatory of Music in Chicago, Illinois. His abilities in theory and composition earned him a scholarship to study music theory at Juilliard, however, it is unclear if he ever pursued this invitation.^[2]

Smith joined Disney in 1934 and spent much of his life working as composer for many of its films' scores, animated and live-action alike, movie and television alike.^[3]

He received an Oscar nomination for Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937). He won an Academy Award for Best Original Score with Leigh Harline and Ned Washington for Pinocchio, which was his first and only Oscar win. He received six more nominations for Saludos Amigos (1942), Victory Through Air Power (1943), The Three Caballeros (1945), Song of the South (1946), Cinderella (1950) and Perri (1957).^[3]

In Fantasia, he is one of the studio employees in the orchestra. He also composed the scores for most of the True-Life Adventures episodes and over 70 animated shorts.^[4][3]

He left Disney in 1962^[3] and from 1962 to 1963 he composed music for Leave It to Beaver.

Smith's main collaborator and partner was Hazel "Gil" George, who wrote the song title for The Light in the Forest with him^[5] and Lawrence Edward Watkin. Another one of Smith's collaborator was George Bruns who worked with him on films like Westward Ho the Wagons!. Smith also did the stock music for the Blondie series of the late 1940s and early 1950s.

Smith died on January 25, 1985, in Glendale, California, from Alzheimer's disease at age 78. In 1994, he was posthumously honored as a Disney Legend.

Film Composers in America, A. Filmography 1911- 1970 by Clifford McCarthy

• Paul Smith at IMDb