Richard Bellis

Richard Bellis (born 3 April 1946 in Pasadena, California) is an American film and television music composer, former Composers and Lyricists Guild of America (CLGA) president, former ATAS governor, USC lecturer, musical director and former actor.

Bellis was a child actor and even auditioned to be a Mouseketeer. Bellis attended John Muir High School from which he graduated in 1964. Bellis became a musical director for traveling acts like Connie Stevens and Sally Struthers. Bellis has directed the ASCAP Film Scoring Workshop for many years.

Bellis has composed and arranged music for the Disney theme parks, starting with arranging music for the opening of the EPCOT Center. He would continue working for EPCOT on projects like “Tomorrow’s Child”, Spaceship Earth, and the Imagination Pavilion. He wrote music for the Star Tours ride and Indiana Jones Adventure Stunt show at Disneyland. He worked with Walt Disney Imagineering to write the music to the Disney's Animal Kingdom attraction "Countdown to Extinction" (which was changed to "Dinosaur").

Before writing the score for Stephen King's IT, Bellis had written scores for a number of tv movies. However, when opportunities for composing dried up, he started a woodworking business with his wife. They built rack mount cabinets and console surrounds for those he knew in the music industry, as well as kitchen cabinets and conference room tables.

When writing for IT, he was inspired by Bernard Herrmann, particularly his use of motifs and ostinatos. The sound track used circus and carnival music and features a calliope.

IT was a 2-episode supernatural horror and dark fantasy television miniseries, released in 1990. When Emmy submissions came, they could only submit one episode and chose to submit the first. As a result, he received both his first Emmy nomination and first win in for "Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a miniseries or a special (dramatic underscore)" in 1991.

Works

 * The Emerging Film Composer: An Introduction to the People, Problems, and Psychology of the Film Music Business, Feb 2, 2007. ISBN 978-0-615-13623-3

Awards

 * Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a miniseries or a special (dramatic underscore)
 * Year: 1991
 * Work: Stephen King's "It"
 * Status: Winner


 * Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a miniseries or a special (dramatic underscore)
 * Year: 1992
 * Work: Doublecrossed
 * Status: Nominee


 * Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music Composition for a miniseries or a special (dramatic underscore)
 * Year: 1994
 * Work: Double, Double, Toil And Trouble
 * Status: Nominee