Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred "Jack" Nitzsche (/ˈniːtʃi/ NEECH-ee;[3] April 22, 1937 – August 25, 2000) was an American musician, arranger, songwriter, composer, and record producer.[4] He came to prominence in the early 1960s as the right-hand-man of producer Phil Spector, and went on to work with the Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and others. He worked extensively in film scores for the films Performance, The Exorcist and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. In 1983, he won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing "Up Where We Belong" with Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Jack Nitzsche
Bernard Alfred Nitzsche
April 22, 1937
Chicago, Illinois, U.S.
August 25, 2000 (aged 63)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
1955–1998
Personal life[edit]
Nitzsche met his first wife, singer Gracia Ann May, while he was working for Capitol Records, who would later join the Blossoms.[5] His second wife was Buffy Sainte-Marie, with whom he co-wrote the Academy Award winning song for 1982, "Up Where We Belong".[17][6] Married on March 19, 1982; they were married for seven years.
He also had a relationship with actress Carrie Snodgress,[6] who was previously in a relationship with Neil Young. In 1979, Nitzsche was charged with threatening to kill her after he barged into her home and beat her with a handgun. He pleaded guilty to threatening her, was fined, and placed on three years' probation.[18][19]
Nitzsche suffered a stroke in 1998 which ended his career. He died in Hollywood's Queen of Angels – Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center in 2000 of cardiac arrest brought on by a recurring bronchial infection.[8][20] His interment was at Hollywood Forever Cemetery. He was survived by one son.[5]