[[quoteright:305:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/henry_mancini.jpeg]]

Henry Mancini (born Enrico Nicola Mancini; April 16, 1924 – June 14, 1994) was one of the most versatile talents in 20th century American music.

The Mancini name was synonymous not only with great motion picture and television music but with fine recordings and international concert performances as well. Over the course of his career he was nominated for an unprecedented 72 MediaNotes/{{Grammy Award}}s (winning 20), 18 MediaNotes/{{Academy Award}}s (winning four), ten MediaNotes/{{Golden Globe Award}}s (winning one), and two MediaNotes/{{Emmy Award}}s.

Born in UsefulNotes/{{Cleveland}}, Ohio and raised near UsefulNotes/{{Pittsburgh}}, Pennsylvania, Mancini was first introduced to music by his father, an avid flautist, at the age of eight. He took up piano at age twelve and within a few years had become interested in arranging. After graduation from high school in 1942, Mancini enrolled in New York's famous Juilliard School of Music but his studies were interrupted by a service draft call in 1943, where he served overseas in the Air Force and later in the infantry. Following his discharge from the Armed Forces in 1946, Mancini joined the Music/GlennMiller-Tex Beneke orchestra as a pianist/arranger. In 1952, Mancini joined the music department at [[Creator/{{Universal}} Universal-International Pictures]], for whom he contributed to more than 100 films over the next six years, most notably ''Film/TheGlennMillerStory'' (which earned him his first Academy Award nomination), ''The Benny Goodman Story'', and Creator/OrsonWelles' ''Film/TouchOfEvil''.

Leaving Universal to become an independent composer-arranger in 1958, Henry (or "Hank") Mancini scored the music for numerous films from then until the early 1990s. During this time he frequently teamed up with director Creator/BlakeEdwards. Perhaps because of this the films he worked on tended to be light-hearted stories, even the thrillers being more like romantic comedies, and his light Jazz style was very suited to this type of film. Although there are rarely any dark moments in Mancini's music, there is a wistful sadness to some of his songs. For these he would frequently team up with lyricist Johnny Mercer, for example on ''Film/BreakfastAtTiffanys'', ''Film/DaysOfWineAndRoses'', and ''Film/{{Charade}}''.

Mancini's musical background was in jazz bands, and before his work in films he spent a few years writing for TV series such as ''Series/PeterGunn'' and ''[[Series/MrLucky Mr. Lucky]]''. His background in swing bands made him ideally qualified for two of his earliest film scores, ''The Glenn Miller Story'' and ''The Benny Goodman Story''. In these and other films, the Mancini style is frequently more akin to BigBand than the typical symphony orchestra sound. His orchestration will typically include a drumkit perhaps with brushes and a Latin percussion set, the lead tunes are very often played by Trumpet (think Herb Alpert) or Saxophone with occasional flute or voices, perhaps accompanied by bass, guitar, tuned percussion, and a tinkling Lounge Lizard easy-listening piano. The tunes may employ Latin rhythms or Blues-influenced chords and melodies, augmented with Jazz-style improvisational riffs on various solo instruments. Among the session players who worked regularly with Mancini were pianist (and future composer) Music/JohnWilliams and bassist Abraham Laboriel.

The one thing which makes Mancini's music memorable is simply the good tunes. In many ways, a Mancini soundtrack is more a collection of tunes or songs rather the "background" music of other composers. This was intentional since Mancini (unlike most film composers) usually negotiated to retain the rights to his music in order to re-release it on albums. His facility as a tunesmith has produced theme songs (full of affection), and instrumental themes (full of humour) which people have been humming and whistling for decades. [[AwesomeMusic/HenryMancini Among his many well-known tunes that have stood the test of time]] are the themes to ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dechpnavTyA Peter Gunn]]'' and ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBupII3LH_Q The Pink Panther]]'', the song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcXiJibBloU "Moon River"]] as used in ''Film/BreakfastAtTiffanys'', and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fkSfPxk_xKY "The Baby Elephant Walk"]] from ''Film/{{Hatari}}''.

Perhaps the most bizarre credit on Mancini's résumé is the theme tune to the 1990 revival of ''Series/TicTacDough''.

He passed away on June 14, 1994, in Beverly Hills, California, but his musical legacy still survives and will influence many generations to come such as recent counterparts Music/DavidNewman and Creator/MichaelGiacchino.

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!!Selected films and series scored by Henry Mancini:

* ''Film/TheGlennMillerStory''
* ''[[Creator/AbbottAndCostello Abbott and Costello Go to Mars]]''
* ''Film/{{Tarantula}}''
* ''Film/ThisIslandEarth''
* ''Film/TouchOfEvil''
* ''Series/PeterGunn'' (TV series)
* ''Series/MrLucky'' (TV series)
* ''Film/BreakfastAtTiffanys''
* ''Film/DaysOfWineAndRoses''
* ''Film/{{Hatari}}''
* ''Film/{{Charade}}''
* ''Franchise/ThePinkPanther''
** ''Film/ThePinkPanther1963''
** ''Film/AShotInTheDark''
** ''Film/TheReturnOfThePinkPanther''
** ''Film/ThePinkPantherStrikesAgain''
** ''Film/RevengeOfThePinkPanther''
** ''Film/TrailOfThePinkPanther''
** ''Film/CurseOfThePinkPanther''
** ''Film/SonOfThePinkPanther'' [[note]]His final film score, and also the final film of his longest collaborator Creator/BlakeEdwards.[[/note]]
* ''Film/MansFavoriteSport''
* ''Film/TheGreatRace''
* ''Film/TwoForTheRoad''
* ''Theatre/WaitUntilDark''
* ''Film/TheParty''
* ''Film/DarlingLili''
* ''Film/TheMollyMaguires''
* ''Series/TheNBCMysteryMovie'' (TV series)
* ''Film/TheGreatWaldoPepper''
* ''Series/WhatsHappening'' (TV series)
* ''Film/SilverStreak''
* ''Film/Ten1979''
* ''Film/{{SOB}}''
* ''Literature/MommieDearest''
* ''Film/VictorVictoria''
* ''Series/{{Newhart}}'' (TV series)
* ''Film/SantaClausTheMovie''
* ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective''
* ''Film/AFineMess''
* ''Film/{{Lifeforce|1985}}''
* ''Film/WithoutAClue''
* ''Film/GhostDad''
%%* ''Film/{{Fear|1990}}''
* ''Film/{{Switch|1991}}''
* ''WesternAnimation/TomAndJerryTheMovie''

!!Tropes associated with this composer:

* AssociatedComposer: For Creator/BlakeEdwards, from ''Series/PeterGunn'' to ''Film/SonOfThePinkPanther'', the latter of which was the last film for ''both'' of them.
* CreatorCameo: Appears AsHimself in ''WesternAnimation/ThePinkPanther'' short "Pink, Plunk, Plink", which ends with the Panther acting as a CartoonConductor playing his famous theme. In contrast to the uproarious applause heard earlier, by the end there is only one person in the audience, and that person happens to be Mancini himself, so of course he approved the performance.
* ForgottenThemeTuneLyrics: The theme from ''Film/AShotInTheDark'' had lyrics added one and a half decades after the fact by Mancini's frequent collaborator Leslie Bricusse.
* InstrumentalThemeTune: You could never forget the saxophone punctuated theme from ''Film/ThePinkPanther1963'', could you?
* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: In ''Film/RevengeOfThePinkPanther'', Inspector Clouseau pulls his car, The Silver Hornet, out of the garage, Mancini's orchestra plays an epic fanfare, and then... [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEFfISdA8LQ this happens.]]
* RecycledTrailerMusic:
** The trailer for Creator/AndreiKonchalovsky's ''Film/RunawayTrain'' made excellent use of Mancini's dynamic theme for ''Film/{{Lifeforce|1985}}''. Both were [[Creator/TheCannonGroup Cannon Group]] productions.
** Mancini's main theme from ''WesternAnimation/TheGreatMouseDetective'' is used in an advert for a 1996 VHS release of ''WesternAnimation/TheAristocats''.
* SoundtrackDissonance: Mancini {{discuss|edTrope}}es this trope in his autobiography, referring to it as "playing against the scene."
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