Joel Moss, Grammy-Winning Music Producer, Dies at 79

Joel Moss, the Grammy-winning producer, engineer, and mixer for a slew of memorable Hollywood film scores and recordings, has died. He was 79.

Moss passed away on Sept. 15, 2025, in Saratoga Springs, New York, due to experiencing an aortic dissection, his daughter, Rachel Moss, confirmed to The Hollywood Reporter. “Joel was loved and respected by all and was known as ‘the biggest mensch in the recording industry who created the best sounds in town,’” his family said in a statement.

Over a six-decade music-making career, Moss became a go-to engineer for scores for memorable films like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, Footloose, Sister Act, City Slickers, Sleepless in Seattle, Mosquito Coast, Dead Poets Society, Gorillas in the Mist and A Few Good Men.

Born on May 11, 1946, in Detroit, Moss started his music career in the late 1950s as a 12-year-old folk prodigy and a member of the Hebrew quintet called The Hi-Liters. By the early 1960s,…