Brad Fiedel | |
---|---|
Birth name | Brad Ira Fiedel |
Born |
New York City, New York, United States |
March 10, 1951
Genres | Film score |
Occupation(s) | Composer |
Instruments | Synthesizer |
Years active | 1975–present |
Website | bradfiedel |
Brad Ira Fiedel (born March 10, 1951 in New York City) is a retired American composer for film and television. Known for his signature synthesizer-heavy style, Fiedel is perhaps best known for his now-iconic collaborations with director James Cameron on The Terminator and its critically acclaimed sequel Terminator 2: Judgment Day. Working primarily in the genres of science fiction, action, and horror, his filmography includes Fright Night and its sequel, The Serpent and the Rainbow, Blue Steel, True Lies, and Johnny Mnemonic (his final score before his retirement.)
Raised in the Village of Bayville, on Long Island's fashionable North Shore, Fiedel graduated from The Barlow School in upstate New York.
After college, he became a popular and progressive composer, and in the 1980s, he worked on several successful movies, predominantly in the action and thriller genres, and pioneered the use of electronic instruments and synthesizers—almost disappearing from the mainstream at the end of the 1990s. He has also served as the keyboardist for Hall and Oates.
He began his career in film in the late 1970s, and wrote extensively for television films and minor cinema releases, until director James Cameron hired him to score the science fiction film The Terminator in 1984, setting the wheels in motion for a successful career. The metallic, pounding main theme has since become the defining work of his career.