Alex North

Alex North (December 4, 1910 – September 8, 1991) was an American composer best known for his many film scores, including A Streetcar Named Desire (one of the first jazz-based film scores), Viva Zapata!, Spartacus, Cleopatra, and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. He was the first composer to receive an Honorary Academy Award.

Early life

North was born Isadore Soifer in Chester, Pennsylvania to Russian Jewish parents.

Career

North managed to integrate his modernism into typical film music leitmotif structure, rich with themes. One of these became the famous song, "Unchained Melody". Nominated for fifteen Oscars but unsuccessful each time, North is one of only two film composers to receive the Lifetime Achievement Academy Award, the other being Ennio Morricone. North's frequent collaborator as orchestrator was the avant-garde composer Henry Brant. He won the 1968 Golden Globe award for his music to The Shoes of the Fisherman (1968).

His best-known film scores include A Streetcar Named Desire, Death of a Salesman, Viva Zapata!, The Rainmaker, Spartacus, The Misfits, Cleopatra, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, Dragonslayer and Under the Volcano. His music for The Wonderful Country makes use of Mexican and American motifs.

Unchained Melody

"Unchained Melody" is a 1955 song with music by Alex North and lyrics by Hy Zaret. North used the music as a theme for the little-known prison film Unchained, hence the name. Todd Duncan sang the vocals for the film soundtrack. It has since become one of the most recorded songs of the 20th century, most notably by the Righteous Brothers. According to the song's publishing administrator, over 1,500 recordings of "Unchained Melody" have been made by more than 670 artists in multiple languages.

In 1955, three versions of the song (Les Baxter, Al Hibbler, Roy Hamilton) charted in the Billboard Top 10 in the United States, and four versions (Al Hibbler, Les Baxter, Jimmy Young and Liberace) appeared in the Top 20 in the United Kingdom simultaneously, an unbeaten record for any song. It is also one of only two songs to reach number one by four different artists in the UK. Of the hundreds of recordings made, it was the July 1965 version by the Righteous Brothers, performed as a solo by Bobby Hatfield, that became a jukebox standard for the late 20th century. This version achieved a second round of great popularity when it was featured in the 1990 blockbuster film Ghost. In 2004 it finished at number 27 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Songs survey of top tunes in American cinema.

Alex

Alex is a common name used in multiple languages. In English, it is usually a diminutive of the male given name Alexander, or its female equivalent Alexandra or Alexandria. Aleck or Alec is the Scottish form of Alex. The East European male name Alexey (Aleksei, Alexis, Aleksa) is also sometimes shortened to Alex. It is a commonly used nickname in Spanish for Alejandro, Alexandro, Alejandrino and Alexandrino, and related names like Alexa and Alexis.

People whose first name is Alex

Miley Cyrus

Miley Ray Cyrus (born Destiny Hope Cyrus; November 23, 1992) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Born and raised in Franklin, Tennessee, she held minor roles in the television series Doc and the film Big Fish in her childhood. Cyrus became a teen idol for her portrayal of the starring character Miley Stewart in the Disney Channel television series Hannah Montana in 2006; her father Billy Ray Cyrus additionally starred in the show. Cyrus subsequently signed a recording contract with Hollywood Records; her debut studio album Meet Miley Cyrus (2007) was certified quadruple-platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) for exceeding four million shipments. Cyrus released her second album Breakout and launched her film career as a voice actress in the animated film Bolt in 2008.

Cyrus starred in the feature film Hannah Montana: The Movie and began cultivating a maturing image with her EP The Time of Our Lives in 2009. In 2010, she released her third album Can't Be Tamed, which stands as the lowest-selling record of her career, and starred in the coming-of-age film The Last Song. During production of the movie, she began an on-again, off-again relationship with her co-star Liam Hemsworth. Cyrus focused on her acting career with several television and film appearances in 2011 and 2012. Her sexually explicit behavior generated widespread controversy while promoting her fourth album Bangerz (2013), her first under her recording contract with RCA Records. Cyrus' independently-released fifth studio album Miley Cyrus & Her Dead Petz (2015) deviated from her traditional pop style for more psychedelic experimentation.