Shirley Walker Has Died - 11/28/06
 

Shirley Walker would probably be best remembered as the supervising composer on Batman The Animated Series - but she was also the woman behind what made Elfman's 1989 Batman score sound so good. The same thing with Apocalypse Now and the short lived Space: Above And Beyond.

To say her passing upsets me is a vast understatement.

I had been trading email with Shirley over the past year. It had been an especially tough year - her husband of many years passed away from cancer earlier in 2006. I had gotten one of my last email replies from her only days after the fact.

Shirley was probably the biggest reason I had gained an interest in this field of music, outside of John Williams. One of my first scores was Mask Of The Phantasm, which remains one of the best things I've ever heard.

I feel like I've lost a friend.

Sorry to hear that, wasnt aware who she was but very familiar with the tracks, im sure she will me sorely missed by many such as yourself.

Wow, you did lose a friend there, Lehah. I've never seen how she looks like, but I could recall her works from the titles you mentioned. This doesn't have a significant impact on myself, but I do feel sorry for the loss to her family, and the music universe.

Damn. :( She single-handedly made the Final Destination movies watchable. Before today, I hadn't gotten around to watching my Space: Above And Beyond set but I think I'll do it now in her memory.

She also did work for Animaniacs. The music world has lost a great person here. She will be dearly missed. :(

damn, not again :( and at the same age as Basil Poledouris...

I was actually hoping she would get to score Batman Begins back then, since she has composed the best Batman theme ever.

FUCK.

So much talent - gone just like that V_V.

Nooo! Why've they got to take all the good ones at once? I didn't even know she was ill!

Walker was a great composer, really underrated, with a lot of her best stuff unreleased. This is truly a sad day. Walker, Poledouris, Raskin, Goldsmith, Bernstein...the great composers are dropping like flies :(

The main titles of Batman TAS are actually from Danny Elfman's movie score. Walker worked on that score as well though (as the conductor, maybe?), that's what got her the job at the animated series. I still consider that one of the most remarkable efforts in the field of TV-animation-scores, since about half of every episode was accompanied by original music. Compare this to Gargoyles, where they re-used cues so often, some scenes became predictable because one knew how the music was about to change.

Still, I somewhat hope that the news of her death has been greatly exaggerated. No offense LeHah, I have no reason to doubt your honesty, yet I'd like to postpone my mourning until it is certain that there has been no mistake.

Edit: Well, nevermind that last paragraph.

Depends. Elfman wrote a variation on the 1989 march for the cartoon series but when the show was changed to "The Adventures Of Batman And Robin" format, the theme written by Walker was used. She also penned the title for the Batman/Superman Adventures title.


And primary orchestrator. She's the reason that everyone remembers the 1989 score and not Batman Returns. (She also did ghost arrangements on Batman Forever with fellow TAS composer Michael McCustion)

Thats very unfair, given that most shows don't have much budget left over for music, so they're forced to recycle. TAS was made an exception because it was still riding high on the first feature movie and was given extra money to allow a symphonic approach.

There are a number of cartoons that had the library approach to great success - two off the top of my head were ExoSquad and Dungeons & Dragons.

I am lost for words here. As if we needed the hole to be dug deeper when it's already pretty damn deep as it is.

I've known her for composing the Batman material (above), the score for Turbulence, and conducting A Goofy Movie.

Rest in peace. ;_;

That's sad news. I was very impressed with Mask of the Phantasm when I first heard it a few years ago. And I've been interested in getting to know more of her work since, but the movies she score tend to be not really my type of thing so I never got around to it.

Like Altman to myself. The death of an artist can be as palpable as that of a relative.

I'm saddened by her passing, and I'm also at a loss for words ...

I know her mainly from her work in Batman TAS, which is my favourite animated series of all time. Batman Mask of the Phantasm and Walker's score for it have always held a special place in my heart.

It stuns me to realize that I'd never even seen a photo of her until just moments ago. She looked like such a sweet, kind person.

She will be missed. Rest in Peace, Shirley Walker.

Sorry to say, but I have never really heard of her. As a result, I agree that she is understated. I will have to listen to some of her stuff in the future as a result.

Rest in Peace.

Wow, and here I was humming the theme to 'The Adventures of Batman and Superman' the other day. This is really sucky, because I really loved the music from Batman TAS and the other incarnations from it.

I guess all I can say is Rest in Peace, and hope her family will be ok.

As LeHah said, this was changed with "The Adventures of Batman and Robin", and it's that theme I'm referring to. Even though Elfman's theme was good, I prefer Walker's.

WHAT!? First we lose Tony Jay, one of the most fantastic voices known to mankind, and now the composer of several of my alltime favourite animated shows!

To quote the late Bart de Graaff (deceased Dutch celebrity): "Celebrities have a nasty habit of dying when you least expect it." (which was morbidly ironic in his case)

I think in the end the greatest tragedy in the death of an artisan is that the practice of apprenticeship is almost non-existant.

Nobody can do what Shirley Walker did, and we've lost more than just a person.

Its strange you say that because Shirley did have several apprenctices of sorts. Michael McCustion, Lolita Ritmas and Kris Carter all worked under her supervision starting on the first Batman show and have done all the DC/Dini cartoon since.

They don't replace her but her legacy lives on.

Holy shit, he's dead too?! Dammit that sucks! I hope they don't make another Legacy of Kain game then. No one can replace him as the Elder God. :(

I love her scores especially Mask of Phantasm. To bad such a lovely composer have gone away. Rest in Peace. :(

holy shit! i had no idea until I saw this thread! I loved her scores from the Batman series. Rest in peace, your music will live on.