George Duning

American composer/arranger George Duning spent his first professional years in Cincinnati, where he'd studied at the Conservatory of Music. He became an arranger for Kay Kyser and His Band in 1939, which led to his entree into movies. When Kyser moved from RKO to Columbia for his last film, Carolina Moon (1944), Duning decided to stay at Columbia as an orchestrator. His first film score was for the lavish Rita Hayworth musical Down to Earth; his subsequent Columbia productions ran the gamut from the Oscar-winning From Here to Eternity (1953) to the Three Stooges' Have Rocket, Will Travel (1959), for which he composed the title song. George Duning moved to TV in the '60s, returning to movies from time to time; his last score before his retirement was for the "film noir" send-up The Man with Bogart's Face (1980).

~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide