Who Are Those Composers? ~ John Cameron

John Cameron was born in Woodford, Essex, England on March 20, 1944. Cameron's career in music began at Cambridge University, where he was Vice-President of the Cambridge Footlights comedy club and performed on the local jazz scene. After leaving Cambridge, Cameron began working as an arranger for folk-pop artist Donovan; his credits include Donovan's number-1 U.S. hit "Sunshine Superman" (co-arranged with Spike Heatley). He became Donovan's music director, touring with him and arranging hit singles "Jennifer Juniper" and "Epistle to Dippy", the albums Sunshine Superman and Mellow Yellow, as well as Donovan's music for the 1967 Ken Loach film Poor Cow.

Cameron also began working in television; one of his first major credits in this area was as music director and arranger for three seasons of the TV variety series Once More with Felix with folk-singer Julie Felix (1967–69), The Bobbie Gentry Show and numerous episodes of the BBC's In Concert series (directed by Stanley Dorfman), which featured artists including James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Randy Newman.

Cameron also scored two British hits as a songwriter with "If I Thought You'd Ever Change Your Mind", a #20 UK hit for Cilla Black (which was also a #11 UK hit for former ABBA vocalist Agnetha Fältskog in 2004) and "Sweet Inspiration", a Top 10 single for Johnny Johnson and the Bandwagon.

Cameron's first venture in film composition was for director Ken Loach, who asked him to compose the score for Kes (1969). This led to further commissions, including The Ruling Class (1972) with Peter O'Toole, Night Watch (1973) with Elizabeth Taylor, and A Touch of Class (1973) with Glenda Jackson and George Segal, for which Cameron was nominated for an Academy Award.[2] His other film scores included The Rise and Rise of Michael Rimmer (1970) and the cult horror film Psychomania (1973), among many others.

CAMERON, John [3/20/1944, Woodford, Essex, England, U.K. -     ] – composer, conductor, arranger, musician (piano), married to Barbara Cameron father of Amy Cameron, formed the music group: CCS (1970–1973).

Charley-One-Eye - 1973

Special Birthdays

Ljubiša Bacic (actor) would have been 95 today, he died in 1999.

Robert Hossein (director, screenwriter, actor) is 90 today.

Spaghetti Western Trivia ~ Leroy Haynes restaurateur

Leroy "Roughouse" Haynes was an American living in France after WWII.  He owned and operated a well known and iconic restaurant which was visited by well known actors and entertainers. The restaurant served soul food and was a jazz nightclub which was visited by American actors and film personnel who longed for a taste of home while making films in and near Paris. The original restaurant was called Gabby and Haynes" named after him and his then wife Gabrielle Lecarbonnierowned, after their divroce he opened another restaurant called Chez Haynes. Leroy died in 1986 but his widow Maria dos Santos kept running the restaurant for 23 years after his death in 1986. Such film, and jazz personalities such as Peter O'Toole, Sidney Poiter, Warren Beatty, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Jazzmen like Cab Calloway, Sidney Bechet, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Sarah Vaughn, Ray Charles all made  the restaurants a regular place to eat and  enjoy whenever they were in town. Haynes himself appeared in two Euro-westerns: “Ace High” (1968) as a boxer and “The Legend of Frenchie King” (1971) as Marquis.

RIP Pedro Osinaga

Spanish Theater and film actor Pedro Osinaga died in Madrid, Spain on December 29^th. He was 81. Osinaga was born Pedrito Osinaga in Pamplon, Navarre, Spain on December 15, 1936. He was one of Spain’s most popular stage actors, as proven by the jury of the XV Pepe Isbert Theater Award that was granted to him in June 2011. The actor confessed in 1988 that his professional career was possible only because he left his position with the regional soccer team of Pamplona where he planned to go to Madrid to make a career as an interpreter. Osinaga appeared in only one Euro-western: “Murieta” (1965) as Claudio ‘Cucaracha’.

RIP Thomas Hunter

Thomas O’Driscoll Hunter died peacefully in his home in Rowayton, Connecticut, on Dec. 27, 2017. He was 85. Born in Savannah, Georgia, on December 19, 1932, he led a creative and adventurous life. He graduated from the University of Virginia with a degree in art and proudly served as a captain in the United States Marine Corps. In the late ’50s, he embarked on an exciting career as an actor, which led to a 10-year residence in Italy and a number of starring roles in “Spaghetti westerns” and other movies shot around the world. In Rome, he formed his own theater company and co-wrote the screenplays for the films “The Human Factor” and “The Final Countdown.” Upon returning to the United States, he wrote and directed plays, ran theater workshops and published a novel, “Softly Walks the Beast,” and an autobiography, “Memoirs of a Spaghetti Cowboy: Oddball Tales of Luck and Derring-Do.” Hunter appeared in three Euro-westerns: “The Hills Run Red” (1966), “Death Walks in Laredo” (1967) and the TV film “Carlos” (197).