Overview
Biography
William Leon Goldenberg (February 10, 1936 – August 3, 2020) was an American composer and songwriter, best known for his work on television and film.
Early life
Goldenberg was born in February 10, 1936 in Brooklyn, New York into music, as his mother played the violin and so his mother taught him how to play the violin and the viola.[3] Then he played it in chamber and symphonic groups. His father was a staff percussionist at WOR and the NBC Symphonic Orchestra. At 5 years of age, he played piano and sang Broadway shows in his childhood. He wanted a musical career but since his father was laid off, he was dissuaded in the early 1950s. Instead of attending Julliard, he studied physics and mathematics at Columbia College and got the job of a Computer Programmer but he quit the job due to an ulcer and he found a job as a pianist and arranger. He was hired to write the soundtrack for comedy sketches of Mike Nichols and Elaine May in that Broadway show, "An Evening with Nichols and May."
Career
Goldenberg started his career in the 1960s when he met Spielberg in Universal Studios and he started to compose music for Spielberg's pieces and other young director's television like the Night Gallery, Columbo, and then in 1971 for a film, Duel.[3] Then he lost his opportunities for writing music for films but he still persisted and wrote music like "Rhoda" for the The Mary Tyler Moore Show and for the film Kojak.
Then he wrote scores for Woody Allen's Play It Again, Sam (play), and Up the Sandbox. Later on, he was praised for all his works and his score for the Sandbox movie was considered 'the real pulse of the movie' and also if the score could be turned into a song. He wrote the song "If I Close My Eyes" for the Sandbox movie and then Alan and Marilyn Bergman wrote the lyrics for Goldenberg's piece, "The Way We Were" which was a big hit. Then he won an Emmy Award for the score of Queen of the Stardust Ballroom. Later on, he earned 3 Emmy Awards for The Lives of Benjamin Franklin, "King", which described the life of Martin Luther King Jr., and a 1986 film called Rage of Angels.
