David Shire

Biography

David Shire (born in Buffalo, New York, in 1937) is an American songwriter who writes stage musicals as well as film and television scores. His film career took shape in the 1970s, when Hollywood was looking for modern scores, some of them shaped by jazz.

He studied at Yale University, where he met lyricist Richard Maltby Jr., and the two went on to write musicals together for decades. After working as a rehearsal and pit pianist in New York, Shire began composing for television in the 1960s and moved into feature films in the early 1970s. His score for The Conversation (1974), directed by Francis Ford Coppola and built partly from manipulated piano recordings, is probably his best known work. In 1979 he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for It Goes Like It Goes from Norma Rae, written with Norman Gimbel.

His filmography ranges from political thrillers such as All the President's Men and Zodiac to comedies such as Harry and Walter Go to New York. In musical theatre, he worked with Maltby on shows including Baby and Big on Broadway. He also conducted orchestras and served for several years as Barbra Streisand's accompanist. His legacy rests on precise, dramatically focused film scoring, and he is still admired by fans of 1970s soundtracks.

Key films

• The Conversation (1974): a score built partly on manipulated piano sounds that reinforces the protagonist's isolation.
• All the President's Men (1976): a restrained score that accompanies the Watergate investigation.
• Norma Rae (1979): the song It Goes Like It Goes, which earned the Academy Award.
• Short Circuit (1986): one of his best known family comedy scores.
• Zodiac (2007): a tense score for David Fincher's thriller about the hunt for the Zodiac killer.