Leigh Harline

Biography

Academy Award-winning composer (score, Pinocchio (1940), conductor, songwriter ("When You Wish Upon a Star" [Academy award, Best Song, 1940) and arranger Leigh Harline was educated at the University of Utah. He was a music student of J. Spencer Cornwall. He arranged the first transcontinental broadcast from Los Angeles in 1932, and that year joined the Walt Disney Studios. From 1941 he freelanced among various Hollywood studios. He joined ASCAP in 1940. His other popular song compositions include "Hi-Diddle-Dee-Dee", "Give a Little Whistle" and "Jiminy Cricket".