Brad Fiedel

He has written for film and television and became well known for his collaborations with James Cameron on The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) and True Lies (1994). On these scores he mostly used synthesizers, but composed a number of scores utilizing various acoustic instruments, including full orchestra.

Fiedel's work includes other films in the genres of science fiction, action and horror, such as Fright Night (1985) and sequel Fright Night Part 2 (1988), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988) and Johnny Mnemonic (1995). He also scored a number of comedy films, such as Compromising Positions (1985) and Fraternity Vacation (1985), as well as drama films including The Accused (1988), Blue Steel (1990) and Rasputin: Dark Servant of Destiny (1996).

Fiedel retired from scoring films in the late 1990s and now focuses primarily on creating original musicals.

Raised in Bayville, New York on Long Island, Fiedel graduated from The Barlow School.

In the early 1970s, Fiedel was signed as a songwriter to Paul Simon's DeShufflin' Music. In the mid-1970s, he spent six months as the keyboardist for Hall & Oates.

Fiedel began his career in film in the mid 1970s, and wrote extensively for television films including Playing for Time written by Arthur Miller, starring Vanessa Redgrave and Jane Alexander, and some independent cinema releases, until director James Cameron hired him to score the science fiction film The Terminator in 1984, setting the wheels in motion for a successful career. In the 1980s, he worked on several successful movies, predominantly in the action and thriller genres, and pioneered the use of electronic instruments and synthesizers in soundtracks. He almost disappeared from the mainstream at the end of the 1990s.

Since then, Fiedel has scored many popular and successful movies, including Fright Night (1985) and its sequel Fright Night Part 2 (1988), The Big Easy (1987), The Serpent and the Rainbow (1988), The Accused (1988), Blue Steel (1990), Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991), Blink (1994), and True Lies (1994). He also composed the Lightstorm Entertainment logo jingle.

Fiedel's last major theatrical score was in 1995, and although he enjoyed a brief period of renewed interest following the release of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines in 2003, when Marco Beltrami wrote an orchestral arrangement of his theme, he shows no sign of returning to the film music field. He recently released an audio version of his original musical, Full Circle.

 

Fiedel has been married to actress Ann Dusenberry since 1993. The couple have two daughters named Alixandra and Zoe. They live in Santa Barbara, California.