The LACC Foundation created this scholarship with proceeds from the fall 2007 Gala. Jerry Goldsmith, an LACC alumnus, was born in Los Angeles, California. He learned to play the piano at age six. At fourteen, he studied piano, composition, theory, and counterpoint with teachers Jakob Gimpel and Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Goldsmith also attended the University of Southern California, where he took courses taught by veteran composer Miklós Rózsa. Goldsmith developed an interest in writing scores for movies after being inspired by Rózsa.
A list of his distinguished film scores, most of which were Oscar nominated, include Freud, A Patch of Blue, The Blue Max, The Sand Pebbles, Planet of the Apes, Patton, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Papillon, Chinatown, The Wind and the Lion, The Omen, Logan's Run, Islands in the Stream (acknowledged by Goldsmith as his own personal favorite), The Boys from Brazil, Alien, The First Great Train Robbery, Star Trek: The Motion Picture, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Lionheart, The Russia House, First Blood, Rambo: First Blood Part II, Rambo III, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Hoosiers, and The Mummy. Goldsmith's Oscar-nominated score for Under Fire (1983) prominently featured solo guitar work by Pat Metheny.
Goldsmith received a total of 17 Academy Award nominations, making him one of the most nominated composers in the history of the Academy Awards. Despite this distinction, Goldsmith only won one Oscar, for his score to the 1976 film, The Omen. This makes Goldsmith the most nominated composer to have only won an Oscar on one occasion. He also received nine Golden Globe nominations but never won the award. Similarly, he received five Grammy nominations but never won the award.