WILLIAMS, CHARLES

WILLIAMS, CHARLES (1893–1978), British film and broadcasting music composer. Born Isaac Cozerbreit in east London, the son of a Jewish concert singer, Charles Williams – as he was known from the time of World War I – worked as a freelance musician in silent films in London in the 1920s, becoming one of the most distinguished writers of film music for the British cinema and, later, an equally important composer of theme music for British radio and television. His best-known works include "The Dream of Olwen," often played as a serious short piano concerto, While I Live (1947), and "The Jealous Lover," originally composed in 1949 for the film That Dangerous Age and revived in 1960 as the theme from Billy Wilder's The Apartment, winning an Oscar. Williams also composed the theme music for the Australian Broadcasting Corporation's television programs, played several times a day on Australian television, "Majestic Fanfare" (1952), and such BBC theme music as "The Young Ballerina" (1951) for The Potter's Wheel. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: ODNB online. (William D. Rubinstein (2nd ed.)