Alex North, born Isadore Soifer on December 4, 1910, in Chester, Pennsylvania, was an influential American composer renowned for his work in film scoring. His parents, Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire, faced financial hardships after his father's death in 1915. North's early education in music took place at the Curtis Institute and Juilliard, and he was the first American to join the Union of Soviet Composers during his studies in Moscow.

North's career in the arts was diverse, spanning ballet compositions for Martha Graham and music direction in Latvia before returning to the U.S. He served in the U.S. Army during World War II, composing scores for documentaries and leading entertainment programs for hospitalized soldiers.

North's breakthrough in film music came with his score for "A Streetcar Named Desire" (1951), notable as the first jazz-based film score. Over his career, he composed for numerous films, including "Spartacus" (1960), "Cleopatra" (1963), and "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" (1966). Despite receiving fifteen Academy Award nominations, he never won competitively but was honored with an Honorary Academy Award in 1986, the first given to a composer.

One of North's most enduring contributions is the music for "Unchained Melody," a song that became a 20th-century standard with over 1,500 recordings. His work extended to Broadway, where he composed the score for the original production of "Death of a Salesman" in 1949.

North's innovative approach often integrated modernism and jazz into film music, collaborating frequently with orchestrator Henry Brant. His commissioned score for "2001: A Space Odyssey" was famously unused by Stanley Kubrick, though it later gained recognition through re-recordings.

Alex North passed away on September 8, 1991, in Los Angeles, California, leaving behind a legacy celebrated for its cultural and historical significance. His contributions to music were recognized posthumously, including the addition of his "A Streetcar Named Desire" score to the National Recording Registry in 2016.