Saul Chaplin

Saul Chaplin
Born	Saul Kaplan February 19, 1912 Brooklyn, New York, U.S.
Died	November 15, 1997 (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Years active	1931-1997
Spouse(s)	Betty Levin

Saul Chaplin (February 19, 1912 – November 15, 1997) was an American composer and musical director.

He was born Saul Kaplan in Brooklyn, New York. He had worked on stage, screen and television since the days of Tin Pan Alley. In film, he won three Oscars for collaborating on the scores and orchestrations of An American in Paris (1951), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers (1954) and West Side Story (1961).

Following education at New York University's School of Commerce, where he studied accounting, Chaplin joined the ASCAP and started out penning tunes for the theatre, vaudeville and for New York's famous songwriting district, Tin Pan Alley. While in New York, Chaplin teamed with Sammy Cahn to compose original songs for Vitaphone movie shorts, filmed in Brooklyn by Warner Brothers. During this period the team was sometimes billed only by surname ("Cahn and Chaplin"), in the manner of Rodgers and Hart or Gilbert and Sullivan.

Cahn and Chaplin relocated to Hollywood and scored two films for Universal Pictures. Chaplin then moved to Columbia Pictures to score Cover Girl and The Jolson Story. While on the latter film, Chaplin and Al Jolson penned the million-selling hit tune The Anniversary Song. In the late 1940s, Chaplin moved to MGM to work on a long string of films including On the Town (1949), Kiss Me Kate (1953), High Society (1956) and Merry Andrew (1958). For collaborating on such hits as Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen and Please Be Kind, Chaplin was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1985. He won Academy Awards for his work on the scores of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, An American in Paris and West Side Story as well as nominations for Kiss Me Kate and High Society.

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