Background
Sharples was born in Fall River, Massachusetts to William, a machinist, and Mary Sharples, and was playing piano in vaudeville at the age of 8.
Sharples was born in Fall River, Massachusetts to William, a machinist, and Mary Sharples, and was playing piano in vaudeville at the age of 8.
Harvard University; Yale University. Carnegie Mellon University.
In his thirty-five-year career Sharples scored more than 700 cartoons for Paramount and Famous Studios, and composed music for two Frank Buck films, Wild Cargo (1934) and Fang and Claw (1935). Sharples was well educated, with a Bachelor from Harvard University, an Master of Fine Arts in drama from the Carnegie Institute of Technology and continued studies at the Yale University Graduate School of Drama. Sharples replaced Gene Rodemich in scoring cartoons for the Van Beuren Studios in 1932 after Walter Winchell praised his work with Lopez in a column, which was read by studio owner Amadee Van Beuren.
Sharples stayed at Van Beuren until 1936, during which time he composed music for two Frank Buck films, Wild Cargo (1934) and Fang and Claw (1935).
In 1938, Sharples composed the music for the Max Fleischer full-length animated production of Gulliver"s Travels. Several of the songs from that production were used throughout subsequent years in Paramount shorts, with the most notable being "lieutenant"s A Hap-Hap-Happy Day." He joined American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in 1948.
In 1958, Sharples teamed with Joe Oriolo for musical production on the Felix the Cat television series. That series made extensive use of stock music composed for the Paramount shorts as well as Sharples" distinctive theme song.
Most of the cues were from late 50"s productions, but some dated as far back as the 1952 Popeye cartoon Big Bad Sindbad.
Besides the aforementioned Felix the Cat, productions using this stock music included the King Features Syndicate television cartoons (Popeye, Barney Google, and Beetle Bailey), King Leonardo, and Tennessee Tuxedo. Later Sharples cues were recycled into episodes of Seeger"s Batfink. Sharples also composed the theme song for Seeger"s Milton the Monster television series in 1965, in addition to using the stock music package for part of the underscore.
Sharples continued at the Paramount cartoon studio, successfully adapting his style to smaller groups and even incorporating jazz and rock and roll styles for the edgier works of Ralph Bakshi, until it closed in 1967.
Among other better-known compositions were Puppets. When You Left Maine and What Has She Got That I Haven"t Got.
Winston Sharples died at age 69 in Hilton Head, South Carolina United States of America.