{"id":2086876,"date":"2025-10-13T03:10:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T03:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2086876"},"modified":"2025-10-13T03:10:14","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T03:10:14","slug":"grammy-winning-composer-and-arranger-from-a-star-is-born-dies-at-93","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/grammy-winning-composer-and-arranger-from-a-star-is-born-dies-at-93\/","title":{"rendered":"Grammy-winning composer and arranger from \u2018A Star Is Born\u2019 dies at 93"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Ian Freebairn-Smith, the Grammy-winning composer, arranger and vocalist whose work shaped some of Hollywood\u2019s most memorable film and television soundtracks, has died at 93.<\/p>\n

A longtime Studio City resident, Freebairn-Smith died on Oct. 7, 2025, according to a statement from his family. He was best known for arranging \u201cEvergreen,\u201d the Oscar- and Grammy-winning theme song from the 1976 film A Star Is Born, performed by Barbra Streisand and written with Paul Williams.<\/p>\n

Born in the Seattle area on March 4, 1932, Freebairn-Smith moved to Los Angeles with his family at age 2. By his twenties, he was working as a vocal arranger, creating close-harmony arrangements for The Hi-Lo\u2019s before forming his own group, The Singers Incorporated, with Perry Botkin Jr., Sue Allen, Jimmy Bryant and George Tipton.<\/p>\n

Over a career spanning more than five decades, Freebairn-Smith\u2019s influence stretched across film, television and commercial music. His orchestrations were featured in \u201cThe Muppet Movie\u201d and \u201cA Star Is Born,\u201d while his compositions appeared in television series such as \u201cMagnum, P.I.,\u201d \u201cAirwolf\u201d and \u201cFame.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Grammy-winning composer, arranger, and vocalist Ian Freebairn-Smith, known for his work on films, television shows, and commercial music including the theme from \u201cA Star Is Born,\u201d has died at 93.<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Riverside County woman convicted of murder for fatal silicone injections <\/a><\/p>\n

His voice could be heard in some of television\u2019s most recognizable theme songs, including those for \u201cBatman,\u201d \u201cFlipper\u201d and \u201cGilligan\u2019s Island.\u201d He performed with the Ron Hicklin Singers on Robert Altman\u2019s \u201cMAS*H\u201d theme, \u201cSuicide Is Painless,\u201d and lent his bass vocals to soundtracks including \u201cPeter Pan\u201d (2003), \u201cThe Matrix Revolutions\u201d and \u201cThe Day the Earth Stood Still\u201d (2008).<\/p>\n

In addition to his work in film and television, Freebairn-Smith composed dozens of commercial jingles for Chevron, United Airlines and Pacific Bell, among others.<\/p>\n

He is survived by his brother, Rod Freebairn-Smith; four daughters, Leslie, Alison, Jenifer and Vanessa; four grandchildren; and three great-grandchildren. His wife, violinist Shari Zippert, died in 2024.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/i><\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTLA. <\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.yahoo.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ian Freebairn-Smith, the Grammy-winning composer, arranger and vocalist whose work shaped some of Hollywood\u2019s most memorable film and television soundtracks, has died at 93. A longtime Studio City resident, Freebairn-Smith died on Oct. 7, 2025, according to a statement from his family. He was best known for arranging \u201cEvergreen,\u201d the Oscar- and Grammy-winning theme song […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2086877,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25172],"tags":[328676,393076,393073,393074,366213,393075,314870],"class_list":["post-2086876","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-entertainment","tag-barbra-streisand","tag-freebairn-smith","tag-grammy-winning-composer","tag-ian-freebairn-smith","tag-paul-williams","tag-ron-hicklin-singers","tag-television-series"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Grammy-winning-composer-and-arranger-from-\u2018A-Star-Is-Born-dies.jpeg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086876","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2086876"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086876\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2086878,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2086876\/revisions\/2086878"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2086877"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2086876"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2086876"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2086876"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}