Schifrin received 19 Grammy nominations over 40 years (1962-2002) and covered multiple genres (jazz and pop) and skills (composition, arrangement, and performance).
He won four Grammy Awards.
Schifrin received four Emmy nominations: three for Mission: Impossible and one for his score for David Wolper’s The Making of the President (1964).
He received six Oscar nominations, five for film scores (Cool Hand Luke, The Fox, Voyage of the Damned, The Amityville Horror, and The Sting II) and one for a song, “People Alone” from The Competition (1980).
Schifrin never won an Emmy or an Oscar, but in 2018 the Academy awarded him an honorary Oscar “in recognition of his unique musical style, compositional integrity, and influential contributions to the art of film scoring.”
He studied music and law for four years at the University of Buenos Aires and received a scholarship from the Paris Conservatory of Music in 1952. In 1956, Schifrin returned to Buenos Aires, formed his own jazz band, and devoted himself to composing music for radio and television programs.
Schifrin arrived in New York in 1958. In 1960, he reunited with his mentor, Dizzy Gillespie, and collaborated on Gillespie’s successful album, Gillespiana, which earned both musicians Grammy nominations. Around the same time, Schifrin also arranged jazz albums for artists such as Stan Getz and Sarah Vaughan.
