Sound

Ira Newborn

Born December 26, 1949 · New York City, New York (age 76)

James Ira Newborn (born December 26, 1949) is an American musician known for scores for comedy films of the 1980s and 1990s, including many with director John Hughes.

Known For

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective · 1994

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

MovieComedyCrime

He's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The Ace is on the case to find the Miami Dolphins' missing mascot and quarterback Dan Marino. He goes eyeball to eyeball with a man-eating shark, stakes out the Miami Dolphins and woos and wows the ladies. Whether he's undercover, under fire or underwater, he always gets his man… or beast!

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult · 1994

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult

MovieComedyCrime

Frank Drebin is persuaded out of retirement to go undercover in a state prison. There he has to find out what top terrorist, Rocco, has planned for when he escapes. Adding to his problems, Frank's wife, Jane, is desperate for a baby.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! · 1988

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

MovieComedyCrime

When the bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin investigates events following the shooting of his partner, he stumbles upon an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off · 1986

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

After high school slacker Ferris Bueller successfully fakes an illness in order to skip school for the day, he goes on a series of adventures throughout Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron, all the while trying to outwit his wily school principal and fed-up sister.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Planes, Trains and Automobiles · 1987

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear · 1991

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear

MovieComedyCrime

Bumbling lieutenant Frank Drebin is out to foil the big boys in the energy industry, who intend to suppress technology that will put them out of business.

Weird Science

Weird Science · 1985

MovieComedyFantasy

Two unpopular teenagers, Gary and Wyatt, fail at all attempts to be accepted by their peers. Their desperation to be liked leads them to "create" a woman via their computer. Their living and breathing creation is a gorgeous woman, Lisa, whose purpose is to boost their confidence level by putting them into situations which require Gary and Wyatt to act like men.

Uncle Buck

Uncle Buck · 1989

MovieComedyDrama

Buck Russell, a lovable but slovenly bachelor, suddenly becomes the temporary caretaker of his nephew and nieces after a family emergency. His freewheeling attitude soon causes tension with his older niece Tia, loyal girlfriend Chanice, and just about everyone else who crosses his path.

Filmography

Sort

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective · 1994

Ace Ventura: Pet Detective

MovieComedyCrime

He's Ace Ventura: Pet Detective. The Ace is on the case to find the Miami Dolphins' missing mascot and quarterback Dan Marino. He goes eyeball to eyeball with a man-eating shark, stakes out the Miami Dolphins and woos and wows the ladies. Whether he's undercover, under fire or underwater, he always gets his man… or beast!

Original Music Composer

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult · 1994

Naked Gun 33⅓: The Final Insult

MovieComedyCrime

Frank Drebin is persuaded out of retirement to go undercover in a state prison. There he has to find out what top terrorist, Rocco, has planned for when he escapes. Adding to his problems, Frank's wife, Jane, is desperate for a baby.

Original Music Composer

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! · 1988

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad!

MovieComedyCrime

When the bumbling Lieutenant Frank Drebin investigates events following the shooting of his partner, he stumbles upon an attempt to assassinate Queen Elizabeth II.

Original Music Composer

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

Ferris Bueller's Day Off · 1986

Ferris Bueller's Day Off

After high school slacker Ferris Bueller successfully fakes an illness in order to skip school for the day, he goes on a series of adventures throughout Chicago with his girlfriend Sloane and best friend Cameron, all the while trying to outwit his wily school principal and fed-up sister.

Music

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Planes, Trains and Automobiles · 1987

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

An irritable marketing executive, Neal Page, is heading home to Chicago for Thanksgiving when a number of delays force him to travel with a well meaning but overbearing shower curtain ring salesman, Del Griffith.

Original Music Composer

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear · 1991

The Naked Gun 2½: The Smell of Fear

MovieComedyCrime

Bumbling lieutenant Frank Drebin is out to foil the big boys in the energy industry, who intend to suppress technology that will put them out of business.

Original Music Composer

Weird Science

Weird Science · 1985

MovieComedyFantasy

Two unpopular teenagers, Gary and Wyatt, fail at all attempts to be accepted by their peers. Their desperation to be liked leads them to "create" a woman via their computer. Their living and breathing creation is a gorgeous woman, Lisa, whose purpose is to boost their confidence level by putting them into situations which require Gary and Wyatt to act like men.

Original Music Composer

Uncle Buck

Uncle Buck · 1989

MovieComedyDrama

Buck Russell, a lovable but slovenly bachelor, suddenly becomes the temporary caretaker of his nephew and nieces after a family emergency. His freewheeling attitude soon causes tension with his older niece Tia, loyal girlfriend Chanice, and just about everyone else who crosses his path.

Original Music Composer

Junior

MovieComedyScience Fiction

A research scientist becomes the world's first pregnant man in order to test a drug he and a colleague have designed for expectant women. To carry out the trial, he has an embryo implant, believing that he will only carry the baby for three months – hardly expecting to face the prospect of giving birth.

Lyndon Executive

Sixteen Candles

Sixteen Candles · 1984

Sixteen Candles

MovieComedyRomance

With the occasion all but overshadowed by her sister's upcoming wedding, angst-ridden Samantha faces her 16th birthday with typical adolescent dread. Samantha pines for studly older boy Jake, but worries that her chastity will be a turnoff for the popular senior. Meanwhile, she must constantly rebuff the affections of nerdy Ted, who is unfortunately the only boy in school who seems to take an interest in her.

Original Music Composer

Mallrats

Mallrats · 1995

MovieRomanceComedy

Both dumped by their girlfriends, two best friends seek refuge in the local mall. Eventually, they decide to try and win back their significant others and take care of their respective nemeses.

Original Music Composer

Innocent Blood

Innocent Blood · 1992

MovieComedyHorror

Marie is a vampire with a thirst for bad guys. When she fails to properly dispose of one of her victims, a violent mob boss, she bites off more than she can chew and faces a new, immortal danger.

Original Music Composer

Dragnet

Dragnet · 1987

MovieActionComedy

LAPD Sgt. Joe Friday -- the equally straight-laced nephew of the famous police sergeant of the same name -- is paired up with a young, freewheeling detective named Pep Streebeck. After investigating some strange robberies at the local zoo and the theft of a stockpile of pornographic magazines, they uncover cult activity in the heart of the city and are hot on the case to figure out who's behind it all.

Original Music Composer

Into the Night

Into the Night · 1985

MovieThrillerComedy

Ed Okin used to have a boring life. He used to have trouble getting to sleep. Then one night, he met Diana. Now, Ed's having trouble staying alive.

Original Music Composer

Amazon Women on the Moon

Amazon Women on the Moon · 1987

Amazon Women on the Moon

MovieComedyScience Fiction

Centered on a television station which features a 1950s-style sci-fi movie interspersed with a series of wild commercials, wacky shorts and weird specials, this lampoon of contemporary life and pop culture skewers some of the silliest spectacles ever created in the name of entertainment.

Fred (segment "Silly Paté")

BASEketball

BASEketball · 1998

Two losers from Milwaukee, Coop and Remer, invent a new game combining basketball with the rules of baseball. When the game becomes a huge success, they, along with a billionaire's help, form the Professional Baseketball League where everyone gets the same pay and no team can change cities. When a rival owner wants to institute major rule changes, Coop and Remer's team is the only one standing in the way.

Original Music Composer

Xanadu

MovieFantasyScience Fiction

Kira, a Greek muse incarnated on Earth to inspire people, helps Dan McGuire and an artist named Sonny Malone to meet. She inspires them to build a huge disco roller rink called Xanadu.

40's Band Leader

The Pest

The Pest · 1997

MovieActionComedy

Fast-talking Latino con artist Pestario "Pest" Vargas is the target of Scottish mobsters to whom he owes a considerable debt. Willing to do anything to raise money and avoid severe injury or death, Vargas agrees to a very unusual job -- he will be transported to a remote island and hunted by Gustav Shank, a racist German executive. If he can survive a full day and night, Vargas gets $50,000 and will be set free. Is he wily enough to elude Shank?

Music Consultant

My Blue Heaven

My Blue Heaven · 1990

MovieActionComedy

FBI agent Barney Coopersmith is assigned to protect former Mafia figure turned informant Vincent Antonelli. In the witness protection program one is supposed to keep a low profile, but that is something that Antonelli has trouble doing. Coopersmith certainly has his hands full keeping Antonelli away from the Mafia hitmen who want to stop him testifying, not to mention the nightclubs...

Original Music Composer

Brain Donors

Brain Donors · 1992

Three manic idiots—a lawyer, a cab driver and a handyman—team up to run a ballet company to fulfil the will of a millionaire. Stooge-like antics result as the trio try to outwit the rich widow and her scheming big-shot lawyer, who also wants to run the ballet.

Music

Short Time

Short Time · 1990

MovieActionComedy

As a result of a misdiagnosis, Detective Burt Simpson is told he has just weeks to live. He gains a new respect for his life and loved ones but learns that in order for his wife, Carolyn, and son, Dougie, to collect any insurance money, he must be killed in the line of duty. He then becomes the most reckless man on the police force, volunteering for dangerous assignments over the objections of his by-the-book partner.

Original Music Composer

Caddyshack II

Caddyshack II · 1988

When a crass new-money tycoon's membership application is turned down at a snooty country club, he retaliates by buying the club and turning it into a tacky amusement park.

Original Music Composer

High School High

High School High · 1996

High School High

MovieComedyCrime

Richard Clark has just left the well-known Wellington Academy to teach at Marion Barry High School. Now, he will try to inspire the D-average students into making good grades and try to woo a fellow teacher.

Original Music Composer

Wise Guys

Wise Guys · 1986

MovieComedyCrime

Harry Valentini and Moe Dickstein are both errand boys for the Mob. When they lose $250,000, they are set up to kill each other. But they run off to Atlantic City and comedy follows.

Original Music Composer

Tales from the Crypt

Tales from the Crypt · 1989

Tales from the Crypt

SeriesComedyMystery

Cadaverous scream legend the Crypt Keeper is your macabre host for these forays of fright and fun based on the classic E.C. Comics tales from back in the day. So shamble up to the bar and pick your poison. Will it be an insane Santa on a personal slay ride? Honeymooners out to fulfill the "til death do we part" vow ASAP?

Music

Police Squad!

Police Squad! · 1982

SeriesComedyCrime

In this cult parody of cop dramas, replete with farce and sight gags, Lieutenant Frank Drebin and his fellow officers from Police Squad bungle their way though crime investigations.

Original Music Composer