"Aladdin" TV composer Harvey Cohen dies, 55

Posted:
Jan 15, 2007

Emmy-winning composer and orchestrator Harvey R. Cohen, who worked on such animated shows as Disney's Aladdin: The Series, died Sunday afternoon at 55.

Cohen, of Agoura Hills, California, died while being transported to a hospital following a heart attack, said his attorney and friend Ivan Rothberg.

"He had cardiac issues most of his life and was very young when he suffered his first heart attack," Rothberg said Monday. "Unfortunately, the doctors didn't give him much longer. His heart just gave out."

A part-time music teacher at Agoura High School, Cohen received Emmy Awards for his musical direction and composition work in Disney's Aladdin and A Bullet For Bullock, a 1995 episode of Batman: The Animated Series. He was also nominated for an Emmy for a second episode of Batman and a Patti LaBelle special, and received two nominations for Universal Cartoon Studios' 1996 series Casper, for which he was also nominated for an Association International du Film d’Animation Award (ASIFA).

In 1997, he shared an Annie nomination for Best Individual Achievement: Music in a TV Production for Casper.

He also created music -- as a composer and orchestrator -- for the animated films All Dogs Go to Heaven(1989), South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut and Doug's 1st Movie(both 1999), Adam Sandler's Eight Crazy Nights(2002) and Team America: World Police(2004), as well as the direct-to-video releases The Return of Jafar(1994) and Belle's Magical World(1998).

His animated TV series work included Warner Bros. TV's Superman: The Animated Series (1996), as well as Love is a Croc and Animal Act, two 1998 episodes of The New Batman Adventures. He was the composer of the 1997 TV special Santa vs the Snowman.

Among his other work in animation was Batman: Mask of the Phantasm, Ace Ventura, Pet Detective, Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain, Taz-Mania, Tiny Toons, Disney's Little Mermaid, Disney's Gargoyles, Goof Troop, Bonkers, Raw Toonage, The Baby Huey Show and Richie Rich.

He orchestrated many live-action films for composer Marc Shaiman, including Down with Love and The Cat in the Hat, and worked with John Williams on Sabrina and The Patriot. His live-action TV shows included Sex and The City, The Wonder Years and Dallas.

A native of Brookline, Massachusetts, Cohen arranged music for such recording artists as Kenny G and The Irish Tenors, along with vocalists Monica Mancini and Nnenna Freelon.

After studying music at the University of Hartford, he pursued graduate studies at Brooklyn College in New York. Later, according to his Web site, he studied with film composer Earle Hagen.

Cohen played the piano and several wind instruments, including as the clarinet, said Rothberg.

He led his own 18-piece big band, Rothberg added: "It was amazing to watch him work."

His first symphonic commission, Columbia Suite for Orchestra, was a tribute to the astronauts who lost their lives aboard the ill-fated space shuttle Columbia. In junior high school, he witnessed launches of the Mercury and Gemini programs.

Harvey R. Cohen is survived by his mother Flora.