Dominic Frontiere

Dominic Carmen Frontiere (June 17, 1931 – December 21, 2017) was an American composer, arranger, and jazz accordionist. He composed the theme and much of the music for the first season of the television series The Outer Limits, as well as the theme songs for The Rat Patrol and 12 O'Clock High. He was the winner of both a Golden Globe Award and an Emmy Award.

Biography

Early years Born in New Haven, Connecticut, the son of a musical family, at age seven Frontiere was already playing several instruments before deciding to concentrate on the accordion. At age twelve, he played a solo recital at Carnegie Hall.

Hollywood After a period with The Horace Heidt Orchestra in the late 1940s and early 1950s, Frontiere moved to Los Angeles, where he enrolled at University of California, Los Angeles. He eventually became musical director at 20th Century Fox. He scored several films under the tutelage of Alfred and Lionel Newman, while also recording jazz music. He composed the music for two exotica LP records Pagan Festival (1959) and Love Eyes, The Mood of Romance (1960).

An association with director and producer Leslie Stevens began with Frontiere scoring The Marriage-Go-Round (1961). This association led to several projects, such as his innovative blend of music and sound effects for The Outer Limits. The relationship led Frontiere to became production manager and executive of television and film production company Daystar Productions, a company Stevens ran. He composed several famous television themes of the 1960s, such as those for The Rat Patrol, Branded, The Flying Nun, and for producer Quinn Martin The Invaders, The Fugitive, and 12 O'Clock High.

After scoring for television shows, he went on to compose the music for the Clint Eastwood film Hang 'Em High. The title theme for that movie became a top-10 hit for the group Booker T. & the M.G.'s. He also composed the soundtrack to the 1971 motorcycle documentary On Any Sunday, which featured Steve McQueen and was directed by Bruce Brown. He composed the scores of three films starring John Wayne, Chisum (1970), The Train Robbers (1973) and Brannigan (1975). He also was the musical director of the 1970 TV special Swing Out, Sweet Land that was hosted by Wayne, for which Frontiere won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement In Music Direction Of A Variety, Musical Or Dramatic Program.

Frontiere became head of the music department at Paramount Pictures in the early 1970s, where he again worked on television and film scores, while concurrently orchestrating popular music albums for, among others, Chicago. Examples of Frontiere's sweeping, cinematic orchestrations appear in the opening and closing songs of the 1977 album Nether Lands by Dan Fogelberg. He won a Golden Globe Award for the score to the 1980 film The Stunt Man. He also composed a jingle for the studio's television division. Frontiere composed a theme for the lion Togar that was featured in the film Roar.

Tax evasion conviction In 1986, Frontiere was incarcerated for nine months in a federal penitentiary after scalping tickets to the 1980 Super Bowl, which he obtained through his then-wife, Los Angeles Rams owner Georgia Frontiere. He was estimated to have scalped as many as 16,000 tickets, making a half million dollars in profit that he did not report to the Internal Revenue Service. Frontiere pleaded guilty and was sentenced to a year and one day in prison, three years probation, and fined $15,000 for failing to report income from the sale of the tickets and for lying to the IRS. Georgia Frontiere filed for divorce shortly after Dominic's release from prison.

Selected works

Television 1961: The New Breed 1962: Stoney Burke 1963: The Outer Limits (first season only) 1964: 12 O'Clock High 1965: Branded 1966: The Rat Patrol 1966: Iron Horse 1967: The Invaders 1967: The Fugitive 1967: The Flying Nun 1970: The Immortal 1970: The Silent Force 1970: Swing Out, Sweet Land (TV special) 1972: Search 1974: Chopper One 1974: Movin' On 1977: Washington: Behind Closed Doors 1978: Perfect Gentlemen 1978: Vega$ 1981: Strike Force 1982: Don't Go to Sleep 1982: Matt Houston

Film 1960: One Foot in Hell 1961: The Marriage-Go-Round 1965: Billie 1966: Incubus 1968: Hang 'Em High 1969: Popi 1969: Number One 1970: Chisum 1971: On Any Sunday 1972: Hammersmith Is Out 1973: The Train Robbers 1973: A Name for Evil 1974: Freebie and the Bean 1975 Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold 1975: Brannigan 1976: The Gumball Rally 1980: Defiance 1980: The Stunt Man 1981: Roar (credited as the composer of "Togar's Theme") 1981: Modern Problems 1985: The Aviator 1994: Color of Night