Max Steiner

Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner (Born May 10, 1888 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary; Died December 28, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an Austrian-American composer of music for films. The grandson of Maximilian Steiner (1839-1880), influenti

Maximilian Raoul Walter Steiner (Born May 10, 1888 in Vienna, Austria-Hungary; Died December 28, 1971 in Hollywood, California) was an Austrian-American composer of music for films. The grandson of Maximilian Steiner (1839-1880), influential manager of Vienna's Theater an der Wien, he was a child prodigy in composing. He received piano instruction from Johannes Brahms and, at the age of fifteen, enrolled at the Imperial Academy of Music (now known as the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna), where he was taught by Gustav Mahler among others; his supernormal musical aptitudes enabled him to complete the school's eight-year degree in only one. He immigrated to the United States in 1914.

He scored hundreds of Hollywood films, and was the most prominent composer in the music department of Warner Brothers Studios. He received 26 Academy Award nominations for his work, winning 3 Oscars; he did not win for what is perhaps his most familiar score, that of Gone with the Wind.