Alexander (Sandy) Courage, 88, an Emmy-winning and Academy Award-nominated arranger, orchestrator and composer who created the otherworldly theme for the classic "Star Trek" TV show, died May 15 at the Sunrise assisted-living facility in Pacific Palisades, Calif. He had been in poor health for three years.
Over a decades-long career, Courage collaborated on dozens of movies and orchestrated some of the greatest musicals of the 1950s and 1960s, including "My Fair Lady," "Hello, Dolly!" "Seven Brides for Seven Brothers," "Gigi," "Porgy and Bess" and "Fiddler on the Roof." But his most famous work is undoubtedly the "Star Trek" theme, which he composed, arranged and conducted in a week in 1965.
He said the tune, with its ringing fanfare, eerie soprano part and swooping orchestration, was inspired by an arrangement of the song "Beyond the Blue Horizon" he heard as a youngster.
Sven Davidson, 79, Sweden's first Grand Slam winner and member of the International Tennis Hall of Fame, died Wednesday of pneumonia in Arcadia, Calif. He had been diagnosed with an initial stage of Alzheimer's disease one year ago.
Davidson, who was inducted to the hall last summer, was the Swedish singles champion from 1950-60 and became the first Swede to win a Grand Slam title at the 1957 French Championships, the precursor to the French Open.
He was a member of Sweden's Davis Cup team from 1950-61 with a win-loss record of 62-23 (39-14 in singles, 23-9 in doubles). He holds Sweden's record for most Davis Cup doubles wins. He is credited with initiating the first general meeting of the International Tennis Federation in 1968 in Paris, where the advent of "open" tennis was discussed and where 47 countries agreed in principle to the idea.
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