Career
"Herman Stein was one of the architects of the sound of 1950s science-fiction movies." Stein retired in the 1970s and died of congestive heart failure in his home in Los Angeles at the age of 91. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Stein was a child prodigy, playing the piano by the age of three and making his professional concert debut at the age of six. He worked as a jazz composer and arranger for radio programs and big bands in the 1930s and early 1940s.
He served in the army in World World War II and moved to Hollywood in 1948, studying with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
Subsequently in 1951, he was hired by Universal Studios, where he scored the music for about 200 films. His name was seldom in the movie credits because of the studio"s tendency to give solo cr to the music supervisor.
Nonetheless, he either wrote the main themes, from which he and his colleagues worked, or, equally important, wrote the opening music, which often sets the tone for the film itself. In 1950, Stein married Anita Shervin who played a viola with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
Later he left Universal and composed music for television