Basil Poledouris has passed away

Basil Poledouris, popular and prolific film composer, has died. News of his passing has first appeared at Film Score Monthly's message board, via publisher Lukas Kendall.

Basil was 61. He penned some of the most enduring film scores of modern times, including Conan The Barbarian, Flesh and Blood, Farewell To The King, Robocop and The Hunt For Red October among many others.

Messages for his family can be left on his official website.

Update (11/09/06), from Yahoo! - "Emmy-winning composer Basil Poledouris, best known for his powerful music for action-adventure films of the 1980s and '90s, died of cancer in Los Angeles on Wednesday, a spokeswoman said. He was 61.

Poledouris worked on the scores for the early Arnold Schwarzenegger vehicles "Conan the Barbarian" (1982) and "Conan the Destroyer" (1984), and his orchestral-and-choral compositions came to be considered high points in the genre of music for fantasy films.

His other feature credits included "The Blue Lagoon" (1980), "Robocop" (1987), "The Hunt for Red October" (1990), and "Free Willy" (1993). He won an Emmy in 1989 for his folk-based Western score for the miniseries "Lonesome Dove."

The Kansas City, Mo., native is survived by his mother and two daughters. No services are planned."