Wikipedia:
Victor Young (born August 8, 1900 in Chicago, Illinois; died November 10, 1956, in Palm Springs, California) was an American violinist, composer, and bandleader who became famous primarily for his numerous film scores, but also for jazz standards such as (I Don't Stand) a Ghost of a Chance (With You), Stella by Starlight, and Street of Dreams.
At the age of 10, the highly talented Victor Young came to Europe, where he studied violin at the Warsaw Conservatory with Isidor Lotto and participated in several international tours with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra as a violinist.
Back in the USA, Young worked as concertmaster for various classical orchestras before joining Ted Fiorito's big band as a violinist and arranger, from then on devoting himself increasingly to light music. In the 1920s and early 1930s, Young worked for numerous radio stations in his hometown of Chicago and in New York, including as orchestra conductor for Al Jolson.
In the mid-1930s, Young moved to California, where he founded his own orchestra and accompanied numerous vocalists in their studio recordings, including Bing Crosby on many of his recordings for Decca Records. In 1938, he and his orchestra accompanied Judy Garland on her first recording of the evergreen Over the Rainbow, among others.
As a songwriter, Young had his first big hit in 1932 with (I Don't Stand) A Ghost of a Chance (With You), which he wrote together with Ned Washington and Bing Crosby and which quickly became a jazz standard. In the same year, the similarly successful song Street of Dreams, written with Sam M. Lewis, was released. Together with Washington, he later wrote other hits such as Stella by Starlight (1944) for the film The Uninvited, Mad About You (1949), and My Foolish Heart (1949).
In addition to Washington, Young also collaborated successfully with other lyricists, such as Ray Evans and Jay Livingston on Golden Earrings (1946) and Mona Lisa (1950), and with Edward Heyman on When I Fall In Love (1952), a hit for Doris Day. Young's songs have been performed by many well-known jazz and pop artists, including Crosby, Nat King Cole, Ella Fitzgerald, Judy Garland, Billie Holiday, Harry James, and Frank Sinatra, for whose television show Young and Washington composed the song You're the One (For Me) in 1950.
From 1935 onwards, Young also worked in Hollywood as a film composer. Within a few years, Young became one of the most successful film composers, writing compositions for a wide variety of genres such as westerns, film noirs, musicals, and melodramas. By 1956, he had contributed to over 350 film scores, regularly working for Paramount Pictures and Columbia Pictures. Starting with the western Union Pacific (1939), he regularly composed the film music for productions by star director Cecil B. DeMille, including Pirates of the Caribbean (1942) and Samson and Delilah (1949). He also composed the music for several films by John Ford, including the classic film The Winner (1952). One of Young's most famous film scores was for George Stevens' classic western Shane (1953).
His works earned him a total of 22 Oscar nominations; between 1938 and 1943 alone, he was nominated for an Oscar fifteen times, and in 1939 and 1940 he was nominated for four films at the same time. However, he only won the award once, for Around the World in 80 Days; the prize was awarded to him posthumously at the 1957 Academy Awards, more than four months after his death. With lyrics by Ned Washington, an instrumental theme from this film, entitled Around The World, became Young's last hit as a songwriter, recorded by Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra (both in 1957). In Germany, Around The World In 80 Days was Young's only chart success, reaching number 16 in the singles charts in 1957.
In the 1950s, Young also worked occasionally as a composer for television; his theme tunes for the series Medic and Light's Diamond Jubilee earned him two Emmy nominations in 1955/56. On November 10, 1956, before the premiere of his last film work, Storm Over Persia, he succumbed to the effects of a brain hemorrhage suffered the day before.
Posthumously, Victor Young was awarded a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame (6363 Hollywood Boulevard) in the music recording category. He was also inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970.
