Angela Morley (10 March 1924 - 14 January 2009) was an English composer and conductor who became a familiar household name to BBC Radio listeners in the 1950s. She won three Emmy Awards for her work in music arrangement. These were in the category of Outstanding Music Direction, in 1985, 1988 and 1990, for Christmas in Washington and two television specials starring Julie Andrews. Morley also received eight Emmy nominations for composing music for television series such as Dynasty and Dallas. She was twice nominated for an Academy Award in the category of Best Original Song Score: first for The Little Prince (1974), and second for The Slipper and the Rose (1976). She was the first openly trans person to be nominated for an Academy Award.
Morley began learning the piano at the age of eight on a Challen upright piano. She then tried playing violin at age 10 and the accordion at age 11, including in competitions, before choosing the clarinet and alto saxophone as primary instruments, taking clarinet lessons and playing in the school orchestra. Morley then played in the semi-professional band led by Bert Clegg in Mexborough. At the age of 26, Morley stopped playing in bands to instead work solely as a writer, composer, and arranger, and would go on to work in recording, radio, television, and film. She was originally a composer of light music or easy listening, best known for pieces such as the jaunty "Rotten Row" and "A Canadian in Mayfair", the latter dedicated to Robert Farnon. Morley also worked with the Chappell Recorded Music Library and Reader's Digest.
Morley is known for writing the theme tune, with its iconic tuba partition, and incidental music for Hancock's Half Hour in both its radio and television incarnations, and was also the musical director for The Goon Show from the third series in 1952 to the last show in 1960, conducting the BBC Dance Orchestra. By 1953, Morley was also scoring films for the Associated British Picture Corporation under music director Louis Levy. That same year she became musical director for the British section of Philips Records, arranging for and accompanying the company's artists alongside producer Johnny Franz. She notably worked with Frankie Vaughan on "The Garden of Eden" in 1957. In 1958, she began an association with Welsh singer Shirley Bassey, including work for Bassey's recordings of "The Banana Boat Song" (1957), "As I Love You" (1958), which reached no. 1 in the UK Singles Chart in January 1959, and "Kiss Me Honey Kiss Me" (1958). She was the head of an orchestra and a chorale at this team, releasing records as "Wally Stott and His Orchestra" and "The Wally Stott Chorale" respectively. She also worked with artists such as Noël Coward and Dusty Springfield and on the first four solo albums by Scott Walker. The next hits she worked on were Robert Earl's "I May Never Pass this Way Again" and Frankie Vaughan's "Tower of Strength".
Some of her works during the 70s include the composition and arrangement for the films The Looking Glass War, released in 1970, and When Eight Bells Toll, released in 1971. She orchestrated, arranged, and aided in the composition of the music for the final musical film collaboration of Lerner and Loewe, The Little Prince, released in 1974. Her contribution to the film was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Music, Scoring Original Song Score and/or Adaptation and she travelled to California for the award ceremony. She was again nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Music, Original Song Score and Its Adaptation or Best Adaptation Score for this film along with the Sherman Brothers and again was present at the award ceremony. Though initially reluctant, citing lack of preparation and unfamiliarity with the novel, Morley wrote most of the score for the animated Watership Down film, released in 1978.
Following the success of Watership Down, Morley lived for a time in Brentwood, Los Angeles, where she began working for Warner Bros. She began working primarily on American television soundtracks, including those of Dynasty, Dallas, Cagney & Lacey, Wonder Woman, and Falcon Crest, working with the music departments of major production companies, including Warner Bros., Paramount Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox Television. Thanks to a mutual friend, Herbert W. Spencer, Morley collaborated with John Williams throughout the 1970s and 1980s, arranging for the Boston Pops Orchestra under Williams' direction and working on films such as Star Wars, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Hook, Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York, and Schindler's List, though in an uncredited capacity. She also collaborated with André Previn, Lionel Newman, Miklós Rózsa, and Richard Rodney Bennett. Later, she would work with soloists such as Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman. She was nominated six times for Emmy Awards for composing and won three times for music direction, notably of two Julie Andrews television specials.
Morley died in Scottsdale, Arizona on 14 January 2009 at the age of 84. Her death was a result of complications of a fall and a heart attack.
