Composer. A leading scorer of French and international films. His music is noted for its breezy lyricism, profligate melody and subtle enhancement of mood and character. Delerue is probably most celebrated for his fruitful collaboration with director Francois Truffaut, 14 films from "Shoot the Piano Player" (1960) and "Jules and Jim" (1961) to "Confidentially Yours" (1983), Truffaut's swansong. He won an Academy Award for "A Little Romance" (1979) and received Oscar nominations for "Anne of the Thousand Days" (1969), "The Day of the Dolphin" (1973), "Julia" (1977) and "Agnes of God" (1985). Among his 200 other credits are: "Hiroshima Mon Amour" (1959), "Contempt" (1963), "The Soft Skin" (1964), "A Man for All Seasons" (1966), "Women in Love" (1969), "The Conformist" (1970), "Two English Girls" (1971), "The Day of The Jackal" (1973), "Day for Night" (1973), "Get Out Your Handkerchiefs" (1978), "Love on the Run" (1979), "The Last Metro" (1980), "Rich and Famous" (1981), "True Confessions" (1981), "Silkwood" (1983), "Salvador" (1986), "Platoon" (1986), "The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne" (1987), "Steel Magnolias" (1989), "Joe Versus the Volcano" (1990) and "Curly Sue" (1991). Delerue was born in Roubaix, France and studied at the Paris Conservatory. His principal teacher was composer Darius Milhaud and the spirit of "Les Six", with its popular tone and melodic directness, remained an essential element of his style. After scoring dozens of short documentaries in the 1950s Delerue came to prominence as a key representative of France's "New Wave" cinema. Settling in Los Angeles, California in 1983, he worked mainly on Hollywood films and became an American citizen in 1991. Unlike most film composers, he insisted on doing his own arrangements and always conducted the musicians, though he seldom objected to changing his music at a moment's notice. Delerue suffered a fatal stroke at the Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank, moments after completing the recording sessions of his score for "Rich in Love" (1993). The film was dedicated to his memory. Director Ken Russell made a delightfully eccentric BBC documentary of Delerue, "Don't Shoot the Composer."