David Mansfield

Born into a family of classical musicians, the guitarist David Mansfield formed the band Quacky Duck and His Barnyard Friends when he was 16 years old. Two years later, he was touring the country with the legendary Bob Dylan and the Rolling Thunder Revue; he even appeared in the little-seen "Renaldo and Clara," a cinéma vérité movie that Dylan made at the time. When that wrapped, Mansfield founded the Alpha Band with T-Bone Burnett and Steven Soles. Unfortunately, his debut as a film composer was not quite so auspicious. He wrote the music for Michael Cimino's notorious "Heaven's Gate" and even received a sarcastic Razzie award for his efforts. They worked together again--less infamously--on "Year of the Dragon," with Mickey Rourke, and on the adaptation of Mario Puzo's "The Sicilian," starring Christopher Lambert. Mansfield reconnected with his rustic roots, however, on projects like "Miss Firecracker," set in Mississippi, and Robert Duvall's pet project, "The Apostle." Mansfield also wrote music for a movie about music, "Songcatcher," and has worked extensively on TV: for a Michael Dinner episode of "Tales from the Crypt," the presidential biopic "Truman," again with Duvall in "Broken Trail," and an adaptation of Tennessee Williams's sweltering "A Streetcar Named Desire" with Alec Baldwin and Jessica Lange. His music has been put to use in quirky indies as well, like the LGBT drama "Transamerica."