Michael Linn

Producer-composer Michael Linn, who scored many films and television shows. A graduate of the New England Conservatory of Music, where he majored in jazz trumpet, Linn began his writing and performing career as lead trumpet, piano and composer for big bands, including Jaki Byard’s Apollo Stompers, Rocking Chair, Ultimate Spinach and Mason-Dixon & the Line. When his interests shifted to film, Linn moved to Hollywood in 1980 and worked with other composers on projects such as “Eating Raoul,” “A Time of Destiny,” “That’s Life,” “Ordeal by Innocence,” “M.I.A.” and “Chernobyl, the Final Warning.” After scoring his first feature “Trial by Terror” in 1985, other film and TV scores followed, including “Allan Quartermain and the Lost City of Gold,” “American Ninja,” “P.O.W. the Escape,” “Rappin’,” “Illicit Behavior,” “Survival Games,” “Legends of the West” and “Frannie’s Turn.” Linn was veepee of Cannon Film’s music division during the late ’80s, and in 1990 he opened his own studio in Burbank, scoring films and providing music for many studios and TV production companies. In 1994, Linn partnered with producer Michael Alden under the banner A Novel Production Co. Inc. At the time of his death, Novel had just completed pack aging “Veeck as in Wreck” with Peter Newman Prods. It is based on the autobiography of White Sox owner Bill Veeck and will star Bill Murray, with John McNaughton directing Ted Mann’s script. BIRTH 27 Jul 1952 Chelsea, Suffolk County, Massachusetts, USA DEATH of lung cancer 23 Mar 1995 (aged 42) West Covina, Los Angeles County, California, USA Linn is survived by his wife, Ellen, two sons, his parents, a brother and a sister.