Leigh Harline was an American film composer and songwriter whose work helped define the sound of animated cinema. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1907 to Swedish immigrant parents, he studied at the University of Utah before joining Walt Disney Studios in 1932, where he spent nearly a decade composing music for animated shorts and features. His most iconic composition is When You Wish Upon a Star, written with lyricist Ned Washington for the 1940 film Pinocchio, which won the Academy Award for Best Original Song and later became the official musical signature of the Walt Disney Company. At Disney, Harline also contributed to Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, working alongside Frank Churchill and Paul J. Smith on songs including Someday My Prince Will Come, which earned him his first Oscar nomination. After leaving Disney in 1941, Harline built a distinguished career scoring live-action films, receiving eight Academy Award nominations in total. His post-Disney credits include scores for dozens of features across multiple studios. Harline's gift for melody, evident in both his song and orchestral writing, left a lasting imprint on American film music.
