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In 1946, Friedhofer was hired to compose the score for the 1946 William Wyler directed film, The Best Years of Our Lives, which earned him an Oscar for Best Original Score at the 1947 Academy Awards, beating Bernard Herrmann, Miklós Rózsa, William Walton and Franz Waxman.
It won seven Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director (William Wyler), Best Actor (Fredric March), Best Supporting Actor (Harold Russell), Best Film Editing (Daniel Mandell), Best Adapted Screenplay (Robert E. Sherwood), and Best Original Score (Hugo Friedhofer).
- $23.7 million
- Samuel Goldwyn
- $2.1 million or $3 million
This Oscar-winning score is a pioneering example of the American sound that composers such as North and Bernstein, among others, would perfect in the 1950s. Friedhofer himself entered a prolific period for original work with his many scores for 20th Century-Fox in the CinemaScope/stereophonic sound era of the early 1950s.
Best Years of Our Lives by Hugo Friedhofer released in 1988. Find album reviews, track lists, credits, awards and more at AllMusic.