American pianist, song writer and film composer. Joined The Walt Disney Studios in 1931 as successor of music director Carl Stalling (1891-1972), who left the studios by that time. He wrote a bunch of very popular and commercial successful songs in the 1930s and 1940s, including "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf" from The Three Little Pigs, "Heigh-Ho" from Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs or "Baby Mine" from Dumbo and later became music supervisor and director at Walt Disney Studios after the success of the studio's first full-length feature animation, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Committed suicide on May 14, 1942, at his ranch near Castaic, California, where he would relax on weekends. His body was found at the piano with a rifle, a rosary, and a note to his wife, Carolyn.