Vassilis Konstantinos "Basil" Poledouris (August 21, 1945 – November 8, 2006) was a Greek-American
music composer who concentrated on the scores for
films and television shows. Poledouris won the
Emmy Award for Best Musical Score for work on part four of the TV miniseries
Lonesome Dove in 1989.
Born in
Kansas City, Missouri, Basil Poledouris credited two influences with guiding him towards music: the first was composer
Miklós Rózsa; the second his own
Greek Orthodox heritage. Poledouris was raised in the Church, and he used to sit in services enthralled with the choir's sound. At the age of seven, Poledouris began piano lessons, and after high school graduation, he enrolled at the
University of Southern California to study both filmmaking and music. Several short films to which he contributed are still kept in the university's archives. At U.S.C., Poledouris met movie directors
John Milius and
Randal Kleiser, with whom he would later collaborate as a music composer. In 1985, Poledouris wrote the music for the movie
Flesh & Blood of Dutch director
Paul Verhoeven, establishing another durable collaboration in films.
Poledouris's studio, "Blowtorch Flats", is located in
Venice, California, and is a professional mixing facility specializing in film and media production.
Poledouris married his wife Bobbie in 1969; they had two daughters, Zoë and Alexis. His elder daughter,
Zoë Poledouris, is an actress and film composer, who occasionally collaborated with her father in composing film soundtracks.
Poledouris's score for Conan the Barbarian is considered by many to be one of the finest examples of motion picture scoring ever written.
In 1996, Poledouris composed the "The Tradition of the Games" for the
Atlanta Olympics opening ceremony that accompanied the memorable dance tribute to the athletes and goddesses of victory of the ancient Greek Olympics using silhouette imagery.
Source: Wikipedia.
Basil Poledouris - Riddle of Steel / Riders of Doom
Conan The Symphony - Part 1 (Anvil of Crom - Riddle of Steel / Riders of Doom)
Les Miserables
Conan the barbarian OST 1982 (full album)
Basil Poledouris - Hymn To Red October
Robocop