Composer. He was one of Hollywood's most versatile and adventurous creators of movie music. His score for "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951) marked the first time jazz was used for dramatic purposes in an American film, and his style encompassed chamber and avant-garde techniques as well as the traditional orchestra. North's song "Unchained Melody," from the film "Unchained" (1955) (co-written with Hy Zaret), is a pop classic that has been covered over 300 artists, most famously by The Righteous Brothers, and was prominently featured in the mega-hit film "Ghost" (1990). The son of Russian-Jewish immigrants, North was born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania. Despite an impoverished background, he acquired a wide-ranging musical education, including stints at Juilliard, the Curtis Institute, the Moscow Conservatory and private study with Ernst Toch and Aaron Copland. Between 1937 and 1950, he scored over 50 short documentaries, and after some success writing music for the New York stage (notably for the original 1949 production of Arthur Miller's "Death of a Salesman"), he came to Hollywood in 1950. Among North's cinematic credits are: "Viva Zapata!" (1952), "The Rose Tattoo" (1955), "The Bad Seed" (1956), "Spartacus" (1960), "The Misfits" (1961), "The Children's Hour" (1961), "All Fall Down" (1962), "Cleopatra" (1963), "Cheyenne Autumn" (1964), "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966), "Willard" (1971), "Wise Blood" (1979), "Dragonslayer" (1981), "Under the Volcano" (1984), "Prizzi's Honor" (1985), "The Dead" (1987) and "Good Morning, Vietnam" (1987). North also wrote an original score for "2001: A Space Odyssey" (1968), but director Stanley Kubrick rejected it. He won an Emmy for the tv miniseries "Rich Man, Poor Man" (1976). In 1986, North became the first film composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. North was nominated for an Oscar in the Best Score category 14 times, he had never won.