Cyril Ornadel

He is known for his work on War of the Worlds (2005), Bruce Almighty (2003) and Man of Violence (1970). He was married to Shoshana Shapira.

"At My Time of Life" from Great Expectations was recorded by Bing Crosby in 1976.

Ornadel's contribution to music for television includes scores for the remake of Brief Encounter (1974) starring Richard Burton and Sophia Loren, Edward the Seventh (1975), which won a BAFTA, starring Timothy West as Edward VII, and the music for the British television science-fiction series Sapphire & Steel (1979).

A highlight of his career included conducting the London Symphony Orchestra at Wembley Arena with music from The Strauss Family in 1973.

He composed several musicals of his own, including Pickwick (1963, lyrics by Leslie Bricusse), starring Harry Secombe, from which came the hit song "If I Ruled the World", which won an Ivor Novello Award; Great Expectations (1975) starring John Mills, both adapted from Charles Dickens; and Treasure Island (1973) adapted from Robert Louis Stevenson and starring Bernard Miles and Spike Milligan. Great Expectations and Treasure Island (both with lyrics by Hal Shaper) were designated Best British Musical at the Ivor Novello Awards.

He married, in 1961, Shoshana Shapira, with whom he had two sons and a daughter. After his retirement in 1989, he and his wife moved to Israel.

He penned the song "Portrait of My Love" (lyrics by Norman Newell), a hit for Matt Monro in 1960, which also won the 1960 Ivor Novello award for Best Song Musically and Lyrically.

In 1958, Ornadel and David Croft joined forces again to write The Pied Piper, which ran for a month at the Connaught Theatre, Worthing. In 1963 the two men worked on a musical adaptation of HG Wells's novel Ann Veronica, at the Cambridge Theatre, with Dorothy Tutin; but the reviewers found it insipid and flabby, and the production had only a short run.

In 1956, Ornadel wrote his first score, a musical called Star Maker, with David Croft writing the lyrics. The show was a Jack Hulbert and Cicely Courtneidge vehicle that toured the regions with success, but failed to make it to London. By then, however, Ornadel had begun to make his mark in the pit on Sunday Night. The show eventually ran until 1967.

British composer and conductor, trained at the Royal College of Music. Beginning in the 1950's, he wrote scores for radio, stage and screen, as well as being musical director in residence at the London Palladium. Retired to Israel, where he wrote his autobiography "Reach for the Moon".

Cyril Ornadel was born on December 2, 1924 in London, England.