Emmy-winning TV composer Patrick Williams, known for Lou Grant passes away aged 79

Patrick Williams’, the Grammy-winning big-band jazz leader and arranger who is known for his Emmy-winning television music, died on 25 July morning owing to complications from cancer at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica at the age of 79, reports Variety. [caption id=“attachment_4825871” align=“alignnone” width=“825”] Patrick Williams. Facebook/@patrickwilliamsmusic[/caption] Williams’ prowess as a composer has not only been recognised but also felicitated time and again. He earned an Oscar nomination for adapting opera in Breaking Away, four Emmys for dramatic music including Lou Grant and two Grammys for arrangements including his classic jazz album Threshold, along with a nomination for Pulitzer Prize in music for An American Concerto, the same report stated. He has dabbled in both TV and films, composing for almost 50 films which might not have scored well at the box office but stood out because of its music, including Casey’s Shadow, The Cheap Detective , Cuba,  Used Cars, Swing Shift, All of Me, Cry-Baby and The Grass Harp. However, his work was centred mostly in the TV industry, and earned him 22  Emmy nominations for his work in The Streets of San Francisco,  Lou Grant, and The Days and Nights of Molly Dodd, among others. Not only did Williams arrange and conduct Frank Sinatra’s final studio recordings, Duets I and II but also for singers Barbra Streisand, Jack Jones, Natalie Cole, Neil Diamond and Gloria Estefan, among others. In 2001, he received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from Duke University, in 2001. He is survived by his wife Catherine and his three children, Elizabeth, Greer and Patrick, to whom he dedicated pieces in his last big-band album Home Suite Home in 2015.