Michael John Lewis (born 11 January 1939 in Aberystwyth) is a Welsh-born composer of film, theatre, television, and choral music. He studied harmony, counterpoint and composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. After a brief teaching career in North London he became a full time composer at the age of 24.
His first major work was Please, Sir, a stage musical that attracted the attention of English writer/director Brian Forbes and actor Richard Attenborough. In 1968, Forbes invited Lewis to score his film The Madwoman of Chaillot, starring Katharine Hepburn. That film score, Lewis's first, won him an Ivor Novello Award in 1970. [1] Subsequently, he composed the scores for Upon This Rock, a dramatized documentary of St. Peter’s Basilica starring Orson Welles, which premiered at the 1970 Venice Film Festival, and Julius Caesar starring Charlton Heston, Jason Robards and John Gielgud. 1973 saw Lewis' Broadway musical debut with Cyrano starring Christopher Plummer, who won a Tony Award for his stellar performance. The show was co-written with Anthony Burgess, author of the novel A Clockwork Orange.
Through the late 1970s and early 80s, Michael J. Lewis scored a series of films including the British cult horror film, Theatre of Blood, starring Vincent Price, The Medusa Touch, starring Richard Burton and the animated film, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, which earned Lewis an Emmy Award.
In 1982, Lewis composed the score for Franklin J Schaffner’s thriller, Sphinx, starring Frank Langella and Lesley-Anne Down. Lewis worked with Franklin J. Schaffner a second time on MGM/UA ’s musical, Yes, Giorgio, starring Luciano Pavarotti. The music credit was shared with John Williams.
Later, Lewis began writing British TV commercials, (British Rail, Tesco, 7 Up, Ford, Audi), and subsequently relocated to the United States in 1986, where he scored national TV campaigns including IBM, Lipton, Kentucky Fried Chicken, 3M, and Connecticut National Bank. Lewis's first US TV score, Rose and the Jackel, starring Christopher Reeve, won him a Cable ACE Award nomination.
Following the death of his daughter Susannah in 1994, Lewis moved away from film scores to concentrate on writing and adapting the music, sacred and secular, of his native Wales. He issued The Romantic Splendour of Wales (Gogoniant Rhamantaidd Cymru) CD in 1997, recorded in Welsh. [2] This spawned further recordings in subsequent years including, In the Language of Heaven, a collection of Welsh Folk songs performed a cappella in Welsh), The Golden Harp, Hearts Afire, Piano Moon, Celtic Moon, and others.
Lewis has lived in the Wiggins, Mississippi area for many years, where he continues to work as a composer, arranger, and musician.
Franklin James Schaffner was an American film, television, and stage director. He won the Academy Award for Best Director for Patton (1970), and is known for the films Planet of the Apes (1968), Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Papillon (1973), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). He served as president of the Directors Guild of America between 1987 and 1989.
How Green Was My Valley is a 1939 novel by Richard Llewellyn, narrated by Huw Morgan, the main character, about his Welsh family and the mining community in which they live. The author had claimed that he based the book on his own experiences, but this was found after his death to be untrue; Llewellyn was English-born and spent little time in Wales, though he was of Welsh descent. Llewellyn gathered material for the novel from conversations with local mining families in the village of Gilfach Goch, in southeast Wales.
Ivor Novello was a Welsh actor, dramatist, singer and composer who became one of the most popular British entertainers of the first half of the 20th century.
Dame Jane Elizabeth Ailwên Phillips, known professionally as Siân Phillips, is a Welsh actress. Her early career consisted primarily of stage roles, including the title roles in Ibsen's Hedda Gabler and George Bernard Shaw's Saint Joan. In the 1960s, she started taking on more roles in television and film. She is particularly known for her performance as Livia in the 1976 BBC television series I, Claudius, for which she was awarded a BAFTA and a Royal Television Society award. She was nominated for a Tony Award and Olivier Award for Best Actress in a Musical for her performance as Marlene Dietrich in Marlene.
Television Wales and the West (TWW) was the British Independent Television contractor for a franchise area that initially served South Wales and West of England until 1968.
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a portal fantasy novel for children by C. S. Lewis, published by Geoffrey Bles in 1950. It is the first published and best known of seven novels in The Chronicles of Narnia (1950–1956). Among all the author's books, it is also the most widely held in libraries. It was the first of The Chronicles of Narnia to be written and published, but is marked as volume two in recent editions that are sequenced according the stories' internal chronology. Like the other Chronicles, it was illustrated by Pauline Baynes, and her work has been retained in many later editions.
Dear World is a musical with music and lyrics by Jerry Herman and book by Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee. With its opening, Herman became the first composer-lyricist in history to have three productions running simultaneously on Broadway. It starred Angela Lansbury, who won the Tony Award for Leading Actress in a Musical in 1969 for her performance as the Countess Aurelia.
Denis ApIvor was a British composer, best known for his ballet score Blood Wedding. He had a parallel career as a consultant anaesthetist.
Ivor Lewis Emmanuel was a Welsh musical theatre and television singer and actor. He is probably best remembered, however, for his appearance as "Private Owen" in the 1964 film Zulu, in which his character rallies outnumbered British soldiers by leading them in the stirring Welsh battle hymn "Men of Harlech" to counter the Zulu war chants.
Eve Myles is a Welsh actress. She is best known for her television roles portraying Ceri Lewis in the long-running BBC Wales drama series Belonging (2000–2009), Gwen Cooper in the BBC science-fiction series Torchwood (2006–2011), and Faith Howells in the bilingually produced BBC / S4C drama series Keeping Faith / Un Bore Mercher (2017–2020).
Mark Lewis Jones is a Welsh actor, whose roles include that of a First Order Captain Moden Canady in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, a police inspector in BBC drama series 55 Degrees North, a whaler in the film Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, soldier Tecton in Troy and Rob Morgan in the series Stella. He is known for being the voice of Letho of Gulet the King Slayer in The Witcher 2 and 3.
The Madwoman of Chaillot is a 1969 American satirical film made by Commonwealth United Entertainment and distributed by Warner Bros.-Seven Arts. It was directed by Bryan Forbes and produced by Ely A. Landau with Anthony B. Unger as associate producer. The screenplay was by Edward Anhalt, based on The Madwoman of Chaillot, Maurice Valency's adaption of La Folle de Chaillot by Jean Giraudoux. The music score was by Michael J. Lewis and the cinematography by Burnett Guffey and Claude Renoir. It was shot at the Victorine Studios in Nice and on location in Paris. The film's sets were designed by the art director Ray Simm.
Cyril Ornadel was a British conductor, songwriter and composer, chiefly in musical theatre. He worked regularly with David Croft, the television writer, director and producer, as well as Norman Newell and Hal Shaper. He was awarded the Gold Badge of Merit by the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors for services to British Music and won a total of four Ivor Novello Awards.
Adam Lewis is a BAFTA winning composer, songwriter and producer, originally from Tonyrefail, South Wales, but now based in London.
The Chronicles of Narnia is a series of seven fantasy novels for children written by C. S. Lewis. It is considered a classic of children's literature and is the author's best-known work, having sold over 100 million copies in 47 languages. Written by Lewis between 1949 and 1954, illustrated by Pauline Baynes and published in London between October 1950 and March 1956, The Chronicles of Narnia has been adapted several times, complete or in part, for television, radio, the stage, film, in audio books, and as video games.
Aaron Krister Johnson is a Chicago-based composer, musician, and teacher. His experience ranges from the Western classical keyboard tradition, to folk music, and to modern electro-acoustic free improvisation. The Chicago Sun-Times called his composition "evocative", and his improvisations have been hailed by Keyboard Magazine as "challenging and creative". His work has appeared on National Public Radio, and has been lauded by Chicagocritic.com, the Chicago Tribune, the Windy City Times, and the online music journal Tokafi.com
Tara Bethan Williams is a Welsh actress, singer and presenter.
Idris Lewis was a Welsh conductor and composer. He worked on the film scores of a number of productions during the 1930s, when he was employed by British International Pictures. He was the Director of Music for the Welsh Region of the BBC.
This is a summary of 1908 in music in the United Kingdom.