Sammy Fain was an American composer of popular music and musician, who wrote songs for Walt Disney Animation Studios during the 1950s, such as "The Second Star to the Right", "You Can Fly", "Once Upon a Dream", and "Someone's Waiting for You".
Fain was born in South Fallsburg, New York; Fain was a self-taught pianist who played by ear and began working as a staff pianist and composer for music publisher Jack Mills. He later began collaborating with many musicians to write songs over the next four decades, such as "Let a Smile Be Your Umbrella", "You Brought a New Kind of Love to Me," "I'll Be Seeing You", and "That Old Feeling".
His Broadway credits included Everybody's Welcome, Right This Way, Hellzapoppin', Flahooley, Ankles Aweigh, and Christine and Something More. Fain also composed music for more than 30 films in the 1930s, 1940s, and 1950s. He was nominated for the best Academy Award for Best Original Song nine times, winning twice, with "Secret Love" from Calamity Jane and "Love Is a Many-Splendored Thing" from the movie of the same title. He also wrote songs for films, like The Incredible Mr. Limpet, Call Me Mister, April Love, Dames, Footlight Parade, Three Sailors and a Girl, and George White's Scandals.
Fain also co-wrote the theme song to the television western Wagon Train.
In 1989, 87-year old Sammy Fain died from a heart attack in Los Angeles, California, and is interred at Cedar Park Cemetery, in Emerson, New Jersey.
Filmography[]
| Year | Film | Position |
|---|---|---|
| 1942 | Bambi | Music Department - uncredited |
| 1951 | Alice in Wonderland | Composer: "Alice in Wonderland" "In a World of My Own "I'm Late" "The Caucus Race" "The Walrus and the Carpenter" "All in the Golden Afternoon" "Very Good Advice" "Painting the Roses Red" |
| 1952 | Pluto's Christmas Tree | Additional music – uncredited |
| 1953 | Peter Pan | Composer: "The Second Star to the Right" "You Can Fly" "What Made the Red Man Red?" "Your Mother and Mine" "The Elegant Captain Hook" |
| 1959 | Sleeping Beauty | Lyricist: "Once Upon a Dream" |
| 1977 | The Rescuers | Composer: "Someone's Waiting for You" |
