Randy Newman

Singer-songwriter-film composer Randy Newman had been one of the most oft-nominated individuals at the Academy Awards without ever having won - that is, until he finally took home the award for his original song, "If I Didn't Have You" from "Monsters, Inc." (2001). Prior to courting the Oscars, Newman had been a popular writer of novelty songs that were both sardonic and catchy throughout the 1960s and 1970s. One of his most famous was "Short People," which became his biggest hit. Though he had his start writing songs and themes for television and film, Newman would not be officially associated with scoring movies until he wrote the music for "Ragtime" (1981), which deviated wildly from his sarcastic ditties from a decade prior. Newman would go on to score the music and write songs for some of the biggest movies of the next two decades, including "The Natural" (1984), "Parenthood" (1989), "Toy Story" (1995), "A Bug's Life" (1998) and "Babe: Pig in the City" (1998). While all earned him Academy Award nominations, he became almost as famous for not winning as he did for the compositions themselves. But after 16 tries and finally winning the coveted statue, there had never been any doubt within the industry or with movie fans that Newman was one of the most revered and prolific film songwriters of all time.