Angelo Badalamenti, the acclaimed composer best known for director David Lynch’s projects including Blue Velvet, Twin Peaks, and Mulholland Drive, has died at the age of 85.
The classically trained Grammy winner died on Sunday (December 11) of natural causes, surrounded by family at his New Jersey home, his niece told the Hollywood Reporter.
Badalamenti created famously haunting music accompaniment to many films by Lynch, including Wild at Heart, Fire Walk With Me, Lost Highway, The Straight Story, and Mulholland Drive.
Lynch and Badalamenti became close friends and collaborators. Badalamenti also appeared on screen as the coffee-loving gangster Luigi Castigliane in Mulholland Drive, and played piano with Isabella Rossellini in the 1986 film Blue Velvet.
A statement from his family said: “The composer, loving husband, father, and grandfather passed away on 11 December... peacefully of natural causes, surrounded by his family.”
Who was Angelo Badalamenti?
Born in Brooklyn in 1937, Badalamenti played piano and French horn as a teenager. By the time he was a teenager, his aptitude at the piano earned him a summer job accompanying singers at resorts in the Catskill Mountains.
Badalamenti attended the Eastman School of Music in New York and earned a master’s degree at the Manhattan School of Music in 1960.
After graduating, he secured a job at a music publisher, which saw him write songs under the pen name Andy Badale.
He scored films such as Gordon’s War and Law and Disorder, but his break came when he was brought in to be Rossellini’s singing coach for the song Blue Velvet in the 1986 movie of the same name.
Lynch had wanted Rossellini to sing her own version, but was unable to secure the rights. In its place, Badalamenti and Lynch collaborated to write Mysteries of Love, using lyrics Lynch wrote, and Badalamenti’s music. Eventually, Lynch tasked him with writing the film’s score, requesting for it to be “like Lynch’s request to the composer was for the score to be “like Shostakovich, be very Russian, but make it the most beautiful thing but make it dark and a little bit scary.”
After scoring a variety of films including A Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors, and National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Badalamenti once again collaborated with Lynch on the cult TV show Twin Peaks. It became the score he was best known for, and a defining factor of the show.
Badalementi also worked with a number of mainstream musicians over his career. In 1998, he recorded A Foggy Day (in London Town) David Bowie for the Red Hot Organization’s compilation album Red Hot + Rhapsody a tribute to George Gershwin which raised money for various charities devoted to increasing AIDS awareness and fighting the disease
The musician also worked with the likes of Nina Simone, Paul McCartney, Shirley Bassey, Marianne Faithfull, Liza Minnelli, Pet Shop Boys, and LL Cool J.
He also composed themes including Inside the Actors Studio and the torch theme for the 1992 Olympic Games.
Badalamenti received the Henry Mancini Award from Ascap, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers, and a Lifetime Achievement honour from the World Soundtrack Awards, which was presented to him by Lynch.
He is survived by his wife, Lonny; his daughter, Danielle; and four grandchildren. His son, André, died in 2012.
