Portrait of Thomas Newman

Birthday profile

Thomas Newman

Thomas Newman, American composer and conductor

Born
October 20, 1955
Age in 2026
71
Zodiac sign
Libra
Birth year
1955

About Thomas Newman

Thomas Montgomery Newman (born October 20, 1955) is an American composer, conductor, and orchestrator. He is best known for his film scores, earning accolades of six Grammy Awards, an Emmy Award, two BAFTA Film Awards, and 15 Academy Award nominations. In a career that has spanned over four decades, he has scored numerous films including The Player (1992), The Shawshank Redemption (1994), Little Women (1994), Meet Joe Black (1998), American Beauty and The Green Mile (both 1999), Pay It Forward (2000), In the Bedroom (2001), Road to Perdition and White Oleander (both 2002), Finding Nemo (2003) and its sequel Finding Dory (2016), Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events (2004), Cinderella Man (2005), WALL-E (2008), the James Bond films Skyfall (2012) and Spectre (2015), Bridge of Spies (2015), 1917 (2019), and Elemental (2023). In television, Newman has composed music for the HBO drama series Six Feet Under (2001), the 2003 miniseries Angels in America, as well as the Netflix biographical crime drama Monsters: The Lyle and Erik Menendez Story (2024). In the lattermost, he co-composed with his daughter Julia Newman. He has collaborated with directors such as Robert Altman, Jon Avnet, Martin Brest, Frank Darabont, Todd Field, John Lee Hancock, John Madden, Sam Mendes, Andrew Stanton, and Steven Soderbergh. == Early life and education == Born in Los Angeles, Thomas Montgomery Newman is the youngest son of composer Alfred Newman (1900–1970), who won the Academy Award for Best Original Score nine times, and Martha Louis Montgomery (1920–2005). He is a member of a film-scoring dynasty in Hollywood that includes his father Alfred, older brother David Newman, younger sister Maria Newman, uncles Lionel Newman and Emil Newman, cousin Randy Newman, and his first cousin once removed, Joey Newman. His paternal grandparents were Russian Jewish immigrants, and his mother was from Mississippi. During their upbringing, Martha Newman took her sons to violin lessons in the San Fernando Valley every weekend.

Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.

Career and life highlights

The world when Thomas Newman was born

Thomas Newman was born in 1955. The year snapshot below places that birthday in its cultural and historical setting: the music and films people were following, the headlines shaping public life, and the everyday prices families encountered.

Culture in 1955

  • #1 song"Rock Around the Clock" – Bill Haley & His Comets
  • Top movieMarty
  • Top TV showThe $64,000 Question
  • Best-selling bookLolita – Vladimir Nabokov

Headlines and milestones

  • Major sports momentBrooklyn Dodgers win their first World Series
  • Top headlineRosa Parks sparks the Montgomery Bus Boycott
  • Technology milestoneDisneyland opens in Anaheim, California
  • Defining fadJames Dean and rebel culture
  • Notable inventionVelcro commercially available
  • World population2.77 billion

United States snapshot

  • U.S. leaderDwight D. Eisenhower
  • Sports championBrooklyn Dodgers (World Series)
  • Also wonSyracuse Nationals (NBA)
  • U.S. population165.3M

1955 versus 2026

These figures put everyday life in Thomas Newman's birth year beside the site's latest United States snapshot.

Measure19552026
Gas$0.29$3.45/gal
Average home$10,950$435,000
Average income$6,200$67,500
Minimum wage$0.75$7.25/hr (federal)
Movie ticket$0.50$11.95
Postage stamp$0.03$0.73
Population165.3M341 million

Sources and editorial standards

This profile combines a biographical source with structured birthday and historical context. Sources recorded for this profile: Wikipedia, MusicBrainz. See our editorial policy for sourcing, corrections, and review standards.

Read the source biography on Wikipedia. Wikipedia text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License.