Henry Mancini was born on April 16, 1924 in the Little Italy neighborhood of Cleveland, Ohio. Mancini's father made his only child begin piccolo lessons at the age of eight. When Mancini was 12 years old, he began piano lessons.
In 1942, Mancini attended the renowned Juilliard School of Music in New York. In 1943, after roughly one year at Juilliard, his studies were interrupted when he was drafted into the United States Army. Upon discharge, Mancini entered the music industry. In 1946, he became a pianist and arranger for the newly re-formed Glenn Miller Orchestra, led by Tex Beneke.
In 1952, Mancini joined the Universal Pictures music department. During the next six years, he contributed music to over 100 movies, including The Glenn Miller Story, for which he received his first Academy Award nomination, and the Benny Goodman Story.
In 1958 he scored the television series Peter Gunn for writer/producer Blake Edwards, the genesis of a relationship which lasted over 35 years and produced nearly 30 films. Mancini's scores for Blake Edwards included Breakfast at Tiffany's, with the standard "Moon River" and "Days of Wine and Roses" among numerous others.
Henry Mancini - Moon River
He won a record number of Grammy Awards (20), including a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award posthumously in 1995 and back-to-back Academy Awards for the songs "Moon River" from the Blake Edwards film Breakfast at Tiffany's and "Days of Wine and Roses" from the 1962 film "Days of Wine and Roses".
Mancini recorded over 90 albums, in styles ranging from big band to classical to pop. Eight of these albums were certified gold by The Recording Industry Association of America. Mancini was also a concert performer, conducting over fifty engagements per year, resulting in over 600 symphony performances during his lifetime. Among the symphony orchestras he conducted are the London Symphony Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic, the Boston Pops, the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Mancini was nominated for an unprecedented 72 Grammys, winning 20. Additionally he was nominated for 18 Academy Awards, winning four. He also won a Golden Globe Award and was nominated for two Emmys.
Mancini was married to his wife of 43 years, singer Virginia "Ginny" O'Connor, with whom he had three children. They'd met while both were members of the Tex Beneke orchestra, just after World War II.
Henry Mancini-The Pink Panther & Baby Elephant Walk
Please visit the Henry Mancini website at this link: http://www.henrymancini.com/
Henry Holloway writes:
I was recently honoured in the USA to perform as Grand Marshall on the Grand Parade at the annual Glenn Miller Birthplace Society's Festival. Another highlight of this trip for me was a dinner given in my honour in LA by Ginny Mancini, widow of the legendary composer and bandleader, Henry Mancini.
Ginny Mancini and Henry Holloway
Ginny is a Board Member of the ASCAP Foundation, and the Co-Founder, Past President and Chairman of the Society of Singers, just two affiliations of a dozen important American organizations. She enjoyed a flourishing singing career, performing with Mel Tormé, the Mel-Tones and the Tex Beneke Orchestra before marrying Mr Mancini in 1947.
It is almost bizarre, but I never met Henry Mancini in person, although I had been in touch with him and Ginny since the 1980s. During my regular visits to the west coast of America during the first half of that decade, our schedules always seemed to move in different directions. We did correspond and spoke on the telephone. It was only in 2003 that I visited Ginny at her marvellous penthouse in Los Angeles. She paid me an awesome compliment in 2009 by hosting a sit-down dinner for twenty music legends at that penthouse in my honour. And followed that with the ultimate honour--the incredible Endorsement herewith.
Henry Holloway
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