Lalo Schifrin, Grammy Award-winning composer of the Mission: Impossible theme, dies at 93

Lalo Schifrin, the Argentine composer who created the theme song for Mission Impossible, has died in the United States at the age of 93.

Lalo Schifrin, the Argentine composer best known for the catchy theme tune of Mission: Impossible, has died at the age of 93. The composer passed away on Thursday at his home in Los Angeles. AP quoted the composer’s son, Ryan, saying that he died due to complications from pneumonia and was surrounded by his family.

Argentinian composer Lalo Schifrin accepts an honorary Oscar at the 10th Annual Governors Awards gala on November 18, 2018. (Photo by Robyn BECK / AFP) (AFP)

Lalo Schifrin dies

Born Boris Claudio Schifrin to a Jewish family in Buenos Aires — where his father was the concertmaster of the philharmonic orchestra — Schifrin was classically trained in music, in addition to studying law.

While best known for the Mission: Impossible theme song, Lalo Schifrin composed more than 100 other arrangements for film and television. Over the course of a career that spanned several decades, Schifrin won four Grammys and was nominated for six Oscars, including five for original score for Cool Hand Luke, The Fox, Voyage of the Damned, The Amityville Horror and The Sting II.

He also wrote the grand finale musical performance for the FIFA World Cup in Italy in 1990. This marked the first joint performance of the Three Tenors — Plácido Domingo, Luciano Pavarotti and José Carreras — three of Italy's most iconic musicians. The work became one of the biggest sellers in the history of classical music.

The Mission: Impossible theme

Lalo Schifrin was originally a jazz pianist and classical conductor. He had a remarkable career in music that included working with Dizzy Gillespie and recording with Count Basie and Sarah Vaughan. But perhaps his biggest contribution came outside of classical music in the form of the instantly recognisable score, the theme of the 1960s TV show, Mission: Impossible. The series made the theme an iconic piece of music. When the just-wrapped, decades-spanning feature film franchise led by Tom Cruise was spun off, the theme was retained.

Written in the unusual 5/4 time signature, the theme was described as “only the most contagious tune ever heard by mortal ears” by New Yorker film critic Anthony Lane and even hit No. 41 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1968.

“The producer called me and told me, ‘You’re going to have to write something exciting, almost like a logo, something that will be a signature, and it’s going to start with a fuse,’” Schifrin told the AP in 2006. “So I did it, and there was nothing on the screen. And maybe the fact that I was so free and I had no images to catch, maybe that’s why this thing has become so successful, because I wrote something that came from inside me.”

When director Brian De Palma was asked to take the series to the silver screen in the mid-90s, he wanted to bring the theme along with him. However, composer John Williams wanted to work with a new theme of his own. Williams left, and Danny Elfman came in, who agreed to retain Schifrin’s music. In 2017, the theme was entered into the Grammy Hall of Fame.

Schifrin is survived by his sons, Ryan and William, daughter, Frances, and wife, Donna.

(With AP inputs)