Randy Edelman (born June 10, 1947) is an American musician, producer, and composer for film and television known for his work in comedy films. He has been nominated for a Golden Globe Award, a BAFTA Award, and is the recipient of twelve BMI Awards. 　　Edelman was born in Paterson, New Jersey, to a Jewish family.He was raised in Teaneck, New Jersey, the son of a first-grade teacher and an accountant.He attended the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music before heading to New York where he played piano in Broadway pit orchestras. He produced several solo albums of songs (some of which were later recorded by The Carpenters ("I Can't Make Music", "Piano Picker" and "You"), Barry Manilow ("Weekend in New England"), "If Love Is Real" from Olivia Newton-John's Making a Good Thing Better, Dionne Warwick, The Laughter and the Tears, Blood Sweat and Tears, Blue Street, and many others before moving to Los Angeles. It was there where Edelman started to work in television and film scoring while producing his solo albums which found a cult following in the United Kingdom, Europe, and Japan. 　　One of his first film scores was for the 1973 film Executive Action, which put forward a conspiracy theory concerning the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1963. In the mid-1980s, Edelman wrote the theme to, and scored many episodes of MacGyver, a popular television series starring Richard Dean Anderson. 　　During the 1980s and early 1990s, he also collaborated with Ivan Reitman, producing scores for several of his comedies, including Ghostbusters II, Twins and Kindergarten Cop. He also contributed to Beethoven; The Last of the Mohicans; The Mask; Daylight; Anaconda; XXX; Gettysburg; My Cousin Vinny; While You Were Sleeping; Dragonheart; Shanghai Noon; Six Days, Seven Nights; The Indian in the Cupboard; Billy Madison; Angels in the Outfield; and EDtv to name just a few. 　　Edelman was honored with the Richard Kirk Award at the 2003 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. In 2004, he received an honorary doctorate in fine arts from the University of Cincinnati. He was given the degree along with three other honorees distinguished in various other fields, including Coretta Scott King. 　　He produced the scores for the 2008 film The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor. This score was recorded at Abbey Road Studios in London, where in 2010 Randy also recorded and composed the Irish flavored music score for Amy Adams film Leap Year. He was awarded the Goldspirit Award (named in honor of Jerry Goldsmith) for best comedy score of 2011 for the Leap Year soundtrack CD on Varese Sarabande. 　　While some of the films scored by Edelman were not commercial successes, the music was often reused elsewhere. Themes he wrote for Dragonheart, Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story (particularly the film's love theme Bruce and Linda), Gettysburg and other films have been widely used in television advertising, film trailers, Disney movies including Mulan, and during the Academy Awards. In particular, the rousing yet heartwarming theme of Dragon, featured in "The Premiere of THE BIG BOSS" and "The Dragon's Heartbeat" have become synonymous with tear-jerking films of bittersweet yet triumphant rises to glory, featuring prominently in trailers of films like Patch Adams, The Truman Show, In Love and War and Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone film. Themes from his score for Come See the Paradise have been used in film trailers more than cues from any other film soundtrack. 　　His music from The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr. is featured during NBC's Olympic Games coverage when announcing upcoming events. In addition, it was used during NBC's coverage of the 1997 World Series. At the end of the 1996 Summer Olympics, it used the closing music of Gettysburg. In the 1990s, Edelman composed the popular theme music for NBC's NFL telecasts which was used for the 1995–97 seasons through Super Bowl XXXII.