Biography
Lennie Niehaus (also credited as Leonard Niehaus) was an American composer, arranger and alto saxophonist. Born in St. Louis, Missouri, he played with the Stan Kenton Orchestra in the 1950s and served as one of its principal arrangers. He met Clint Eastwood while both were serving in the US Army at Fort Ord in the early 1950s.
Niehaus orchestrated scores for several Eastwood films in the 1970s and 1980s before composing original music for Eastwood-directed features from Pale Rider (1985) onwards. His credits include Unforgiven (1992) and The Bridges of Madison County (1995). He also orchestrated later Eastwood projects such as Million Dollar Baby (2004) and Gran Torino (2008). Niehaus won BMI Film & TV Awards for several of these scores and received a Primetime Emmy for the 1993 television film Lush Life.
