http://www.aintitcool.com/node/30853
ScoreKeeper here with sad news. Veteran film and television composer Shirley Walker passed away Wednesday evening after suffering a brain aneurism. She was 61.
Shirley Walker is probably most well-known for her scoring contributions to the television series “Batman: The Animated Series†(1992-95), “Superman: The Animated Series†(1996-00), “The New Batman Adventures†(1997-99) and “Batman Beyond†(1999-01) as well as her outstanding original film scores for MEMOIRS OF AN INVISIBLE MAN (1992), BATMAN: MASK OF THE PHANTASM (1993), ESCAPE FROM L.A. (1996), FINAL DESTINATION (2000), FINAL DESTINATION 2 (2003), WILLARD (2003), and FINAL DESTINATION 3 (2006).
Shirley had a long relationship with Danny Elfman serving as his conductor for SCROOGED (1988), BATMAN (1989), NIGHTBREED (1990), DICK TRACY (1990), EDWARD SCISSORHANDS (1990) and ARTICLE 99 (1992).
She also worked extensively with Hans Zimmer as both an orchestrator and conductor on a host of his films including BLACK RAIN (1989), BIRD ON A WIRE (1990), PACIFIC HEIGHTS (1990), BACKDRAFT (1991), TOYS (1992), A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN (1992) as well as TRUE LIES (1994) and JOHNNY MNEMONIC (1995) for Brad Fiedel.
Damn. I have her scores to Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and Escape From L.A., and have always been impressed with them; the opening theme to Mask of the Phantasm is hands-down one of the best superhero themes I’ve ever heard, and John Carpenter has said that her arrangement of his theme to Escape From New York was “always the way he wanted the theme to sound”.