Johnny Green

After a stab at studying economics at Harvard, 21-year-old New Yorker Johnny Green was hired as a rehearsal pianist at Paramount Pictures. Entering the movies at the dawn of the musical-comedy era, Green swiftly gained in experience and expertise; throughout the '30s he was a top musical arranger and bandleader, taking time out to compose such song hits as "Body and Soul." In 1949, Green was appointed musical director at MGM, where during his nine-year stay he won Oscars for his orchestrations of Easter Parade (1948) and An American in Paris (1951). He also supervised MGM's Concert Hall Technicolor short subjects series, picking up an additional Oscar for his efforts. An outspoken liberal, Green was in danger of being blacklisted in the politically delicate early '50s; he avoided this fate with a carefully worded "patriotic" public statement which caused him embarrassment to his dying day. Free-lancing upon the completion of his MGM contract, Green collected two more Academy Awards for orchestrating West Side Story (1961) and Oliver! Perhaps it was his familiarity with the Oscar podium that led Green to produce several of the Academy Awards ceremonies. Johnny Green's final movie assignment was likewise as producer: 1969's They Shoot Horses, Don't They? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide