William Conti (born April 13, 1942) is an American composer and conductor, best known for his film scores, including Rocky (and four of its sequels), The Karate Kid (and all of its sequels), For Your Eyes Only, Dynasty (and its sequel The Colbys), The Big Chill and The Right Stuff, which earned him an Academy Award for Best Original Score. He also received nominations in the Best Original Song category for "Gonna Fly Now" from Rocky and for the title song of For Your Eyes Only. He was the musical director at the Academy Awards a record nineteen times. Biography Early life Conti, an Italian American, was born in Providence, Rhode Island, the son of Lucetta and William Conti. He graduated from North Miami High School in 1959. He is a past winner of the Silver Knight Award presented by the Miami Herald. He is a graduate of Louisiana State University School of Music, and also studied and gained honors at the Juilliard School of Music, including a master's degree. Rocky series As early as 1971, Bill was orchestrating pop recordings by Italian artists, such as the album Sì... incoerenza ("Yes to Incoherence") by Italian singer Patty Pravo. He was also a ghostwriter of the scores for Spaghetti Westerns. Conti's big break into celebrity came in 1976, when United Artists hired him to compose the music for a small film called Rocky. The film became a phenomenon and won three Oscars at the 49th Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The same ceremony was also the first time Conti served as musical director for the telecast, a role he reprised 19 times, more than any other person. His training montage tune, "Gonna Fly Now", topped the Billboard singles chart in 1977, and earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song. Conti also composed music for the sequels Rocky II (1979), Rocky III (1982), Rocky V (1990) and Rocky Balboa (2006). Other film and television credits Conti also worked for some other films and, eventually, for television series. In 1981, he wrote the music for the James Bond film For Your Eyes Only, when John Barry was unwilling to return to the United Kingdom for tax reasons, and provided the score for playwright Jason Miller's film version of his Pulitzer Prize-winning play That Championship Season the following year. In 1983, Conti composed the score for HBO's first film, The Terry