Prolific B-movie composer Irving Gertz died at his Los Angeles home on 14 November 2008. Born 19 May 1915 in Providence, Rhode Island, he composed or contributed to the scores of more than 200 movies, mostly for Columbia, Universal, and 20th Century Fox. He also worked for television, and was most active from the 1940s to the 1960s.
His genre film work includes: The Leech Woman (1960), The Alligator People (1959), Curse of the Undead (1959), Monster on the Campus (1958), The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958), The Monolith Monsters (1957), The Deadly Mantis (1957), The Incredible Shrinking Man (1957), The Creature Walks Among Us (1956), Abbott and Costello Meet the Mummy (1955), Cult of the Cobra (1955), Francis Joins the WACS (1954), It Came from Outer Space (1953), Jungle Jim in the Forbidden Land (1952), and Fury of the Congo (1951). His work appears in genre television programs including: Land of the Giants (1968), The Invaders (1967), and Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea (1964). He was even more prolific in Westerns and Adventures.
Gertz played the piano, clarinet, tuba, and string bass, and attended the Providence College of Music. He was hired by Columbia Pictures in 1938, served in the Army Signal Corps during World War II, and returned to Columbia after the war. He is survived by his wife, Dorothy Stadler, their daughters Susie Anson and Madeleine Herron, and four grandchildren.