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Alf Clausen, Longtime ‘The Simpsons’ Composer, Dead at 84

Alf Clausen, the longtime composer on 'The Simpsons' who scored countless iconic moments on the animated series, has died at the age of 84.

The Emmy-winning composer died Thursday at his home in Los Angeles following an eight-year battle with progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP), Clausen’s daughter told the Hollywood Reporter. The Minneapolis-born, North Dakota-raised, and Berklee College of Music-educated Clausen began his career in movies and television in the mid-Seventies, working his way up from music copyist and arranger to orchestrater (including on Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) to conductor to composer, with the TV series Moonlighting his first major and prolonged gig in the role; Clausen received six of his unprecedented 30 Emmy nominations for his work on Moonlighting. Clausen was also nominated for over 20 Primetime Emmys for his work on The Simpsons, resulting in two wins for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Music and Lyrics: First in 1998 for “We Put The Spring In Springfield” and again the following year for You’re Checkin’ In.”

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