Peter Thomas was born on Dezember, 1st 1925 at Breslau and later stayed in Berlin until
he started writing soundtracks. As an kindergarten-child he already learned playing piano.
After the war he studied music and played piano at various clubs of the allies. The different
tastes of Americans and Russians was a valuable time for him.
His compositions for Durbridge-crime-movies for TV, Edgar-Wallace- and Jerry-Cotton-movies
(starring American actor George Nader) for the big screen during the 60ies could not be mistaken.
His most successful work was the main theme of the black-and-white TV-science-fiction series
"Raumpatrouille" in 1966 (that is: "SPACE PATROL - the phantastic adventures of the spaceship
ORION"). The countdown in the beginning of each part he spoke himself, experimenting with voice distortion. Today the easy-listening - composer is to be found at various locations, from
Kitzbühel to St. Tropez, but still he is an active worker. And by doing this he also is supporting younger musicians to find their way. |
The 60ies were the great time of the German Edgar Wallace movies.
Two composers were responsible for writing the best soundtracks of this series: Martin Böttcher
and Peter Thomas.
Peter Thomas said at that time: "The music for crime movies in the cinema has a very special part.
It has more to do with the plot on the screen than the viewer or listener may know.
The best is when you can unplug the music from the happening on the screen and discover a whole new Edgar Wallace world only with the sound."
Besides the Edgar Wallace movies he too worked on Karl-May-movies, for the cinema with "Winnetou und sein Freund Old Firehand" (Thunder at the Border) and on TV with the series "Mein Freund Winnetou" (My friend Winnetou).
By the way: If you have a look at the All Movie Guide-pages for Peter Thomas,
don't get confused. They again messed it up and show 5 different Peter Thomas', of which the last one is right (active: 1959 - 1978, but that also is wrong.). The IMDB once again was more exact and shows 39 Peter Thomas'es, of which the first one is right.. |