The Superman family has included countless legendary and talented contributors. Jerrold King Goldsmith was no exception.

Goldsmith's passing in July after a long illness was a devastating loss for both the entertainment world and all of film music. Goldsmith was truly talented. He had a certain technique in creating his film scores. It is hard to believe such a super composer has left us, but you know the old saying...you can't take what you leave behind, and certainly what Goldsmith has left behind will still be heard for years and decades to come. But let's go back to the beginning and take a quick journey through Goldsmith's career.

Like so many legendary composers of the 20th Century, Goldsmith's career took off in the Golden Age of Television. Fans of today probably won't realize some early episodes of "Perry Mason" and "Gunsmoke" were composed by Goldsmith. But while he still had his TV career he began to divulge into the world of motion pictures.

Even in the 1960s, Goldsmith's scoring techniques were ahead of their time. He experimented with unusual non-orchestral effects in the original "Planet Of The Apes" (1968), but his jungle-like orchestrations suited the film quite well. For 1970's "Patton", he tried his hand at military music, and although his score only added up to a fourth of the entire three-hour running time, again he succeeded.

Well into the 1970s, Goldsmith continued his successful television career with many CBS shows such as "The Waltons" and "Barnaby Jones". By the middle of the decade, his transition to motion pictures was nearly complete, as evidenced by his majestic scores for the 1976 sci-fi thriller "Logan's Run", and 1979's "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" and "Alien", even though Goldsmith had a bad experience with the latter film, in that director Ridley Scott severely altered its music for the final cut (if you still have the original DVD issue of "Alien", hold on to it! It's a collector's item as it has an isolated track of the uncut, intended score).

The 1980s brought Goldsmith perhaps his greatest work. Some of these scores were recorded with the Hungarian State Opera Orchestra, and ironically they were for films that were hardly blockbusters at the box office (but today are considered cult classics for the most part). The 1985 remake of "King Solomon's Mines", "Extreme Prejudice", "Rent-A-Cop", "Hoosiers", "Rambo III", and "Lionheart" are prime examples of Goldsmith at his best. No orchestra could have brought Goldsmith's music more alive than the HSOO.

Then came what many music and film critics (such as myself) consider the best score Goldsmith ever wrote..."Legend" (directed in 1985 by Ridley Scott). This was not just any score...it was a rare score that actually helped in telling the film's story set amongst fairies, devils, and princesses. Conducting the National Philharmonic Orchestra (as he would use on many other occasions, such as 1982's "The Secret Of NIMH" and 1990's "Total Recall"), Goldsmith worked hard to create a glorious score that would initially be heard by so few--due to studio politics, the original score was heard only in European theatres. His music has since been restored for DVD release.

The 1990s up until 2003 would bring more "Star Trek" films, a Disney feature ("Mulan"), and even theme music for the Academy Awards®, but none of his latter material would match up to his 1980s work. Yet, for all his glory and work, the motion picture Academy only saw fit to award Goldsmith only one Oscar®, for 1976's "The Omen" (helmed by future "Superman" director Richard Donner).

Ironically, Goldsmith was Donner's first choice to compose the music for "Superman". Eventually, his contribution to the "Superman" movie series was for "Supergirl" (1984). In listening to the score today, you get the feeling of what Goldsmith might have come up with had he gone on to compose the music for "Superman" (although he did briefly quote John Williams' legendary "Superman" theme into the final score). The "Supergirl" music is enjoyable just the same.

You do not get many film composers today with the same extreme talent and enthusiasm as Jerry Goldsmith. He knew what music to a film sounded like. And he knew how to use some of the best orchestras in the world to interpret his aural and artistic vision. He really did make a film come alive, even if it did or didn't do well at the box office. He was a pure genius at his craft.

We may no longer see any new films or television series with the credit "Music by Jerry Goldsmith", but the music he created will live on.

So thank you, Jerry Goldsmith. Rest well...you've earned it.

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