Michael Gore

Michael Gore is an American composer and music producer. He was born Michael Goldstein in Brooklyn, New York, on March 5, 1951. Gore’s older sister was singer, songwriter, actress, and activist Lesley Gore. He was raised in Tenafly, New Jersey.

Gore wrote the music for the 1980 movie musical Fame, which follows students during their tenures at New York’s High School of the Performing Arts. He was nominated for several awards for his work on the film, and his wins included an Academy Award for Best Original Score, and an Academy Award and a Golden Globe for the title song. Gore continued to write music for several movies, including Terms of Endearment, Footloose, Pretty in Pink, The Butcher’s Wife, Terms of Endearment, and Camp. Gore’s foremost theatrical endeavor was composing the music for his 1988 Carrie: The Musical, based on the Stephen King horror novel of the same name. He collaborated with his “Fame” lyricist, Dean Pitchford, and book writer Lawrence D. Cohen. Carrie: The Musical notoriously flopped, but after gaining a cult following, it enjoyed a much more successful 2012 off-Broadway revival.