Public domain

A British-American composer and orchestra leader best known for "The Stripper," a burlesque instrumental that became an unlikely pop hit, and "Holiday for Strings," a radio-era standard still used as stock music decades later. He wrote scores for television series including Bonanza, Little House on the Prairie, and Highway to Heaven, and won four Emmy Awards for his television composing across a career that also included a long run as musical director of The Red Skelton Show.