Philip Green (composer)


Philip Green, sometimes credited as Harry Philip Green, was a British film and television composer and conductor.

Early life

Green was born on 19 July 1911 in Whitechapel, London. His father was Philip Green, a boot clicker, and his mother was Elizabeth Vogel.

Career

Green's first credited work was on 1943's The Sky's the Limit. He was a house arranger and conductor for Decca and accompanied many of their vocalists such as Gracie Fields, Donald Peers and Anne Shelton. He was later appointed resident musical director of the Rank Organisation. He continued to compose and conduct for film and television until his retirement in 1966. Philip, along with his wife, Dorothy, established the Philip and Dorothy Green Music Trust to help young musicians and composers.

Works

He composed more than 150 film scores including The Yellow Balloon, Carry on Admiral, The Square Peg, The League of Gentlemen, Victim, The Singer Not the Song, and The Intelligence Men. His themes for John and Julie and The March Hare both won Ivor Novello Awards. He also composed the themes for the popular 1960s television crime series Ghost Squad and Sergeant Cork.
Like many composers of film music and light music, he also wrote prolifically for production music libraries and as a result, a number of his compositions are familiar through their use in film, radio and television programmes. Many of these works are now published by Carlin Production Music. His short composition "Horse Feathers" was used for the radio series Meet the Huggetts, for example, and a number of his pieces were used in Night of the Living Dead, Looney Tunes theatrical shorts

Death

He died in 1982 of cerebral metastasis. After his death, his stock music could again be heard in The Ren and Stimpy Show, The World's Greatest Magic and SpongeBob SquarePants.

Selected filmography