Frank Churchill

Frank Churchill was an American composer born on October 20, 1901 in Rumford, Maine (USA), who died on May 14, 1942 in Castaic (California).

Churchill began his career playing piano in cinemas at the age of 15 in Ventura, California. After dropping out of medical studies at UCLA to pursue a career in music, he became an accompanist at the Los Angeles radio station KNX (AM) in 1924.

In 1930, he was hired at Disney Studios to compose the melodies for the short films, mainly Silly Symphonies.

Among the best known are Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf? composed for The Three Little Pigs (1933) with lyrics by Ted Sears. Churchill is said to have been assisted by Pinto Colvig.

In 1937, he was chosen to score Disney's first full-length animated feature, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (including One Day My Prince Will Come, with lyrics by Larry Morey) with Paul Smith and Leigh Harline. His catchy, artfully written songs played a large part in the film's initial success and continuing popularity.

Because of the success of Peter Pan when those two were in production, he shared credit with Jack Lawrence for the deleted song "Never Smile at a Crocodile" from Peter Pan. In 1942, Churchill and fellow composer Oliver Wallace won an Oscar in the category "Scoring of a Musical Picture" for cowriting the score for Dumbo. He also shared an Oscar nomination with Ned Washington for the song "Baby Mine" from Dumbo for Best Song. A year later, Churchill received two posthumous Oscar nominations; the first for cowriting the score to Bambi with Edward Plumb, and the second for cowriting the song "Love is a Song" from Bambi with lyricist Larry Morey.

Churchill committed suicide on May 14, 1942, at his ranch north of Los Angeles in Castaic. He is purported to have died "at the piano" of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Although there is some speculation that his suicide was a result of negative discourse with Walt Disney regarding his latest scores for Bambi, it was more likely due to his deep depression and bout with heavy drinking after the deaths of two of his closest friends and fellow Disney orchestra members who had died earlier that year within a month of each other. He was survived by his wife Carolyn and his daughter Corrine. He was buried in Glendale's Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetery.

According to Jimmy Johnson, president of Walt Disney Records, he was unique, writing simple, straightforward melodies the way Walt Disney wanted them and coming to the studio in immaculate suits with a bow tie. Johnson says he drank a little but it didn't interfere with his work. After his suicide in 1942, Walt lost a talented composer and a man with whom he could talk music. Just after the war, Leigh Harline and Ned Washington, the studio's other composers left for competing studios.