Oscar-winning composer dies

Livingston won three Oscars with his writing partner

Oscar-winning composer Jay Livingston, who co-wrote such film hits as Que Sera, Sera, has died at the age of 86.

His songwriting partnership with Ray Evans won them three Academy Awards for music for the films The Paleface, Captain Carey USA and The Man Who Knew Too Much.

He wrote songs for The Man Who Knew Too Much

The pair were also nominated a further four times in the best music song category.

Livingston died of pneumonia at Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre in Los Angeles on Wednesday.

Livingston and Evans were often billed as the last of the great songwriters.

Honoured

The duo also wrote the theme tunes to some of television's best loved shows including Bonanza and Mr Ed.

They were honoured by the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers for the most performed music for film and TV for 1996.

They were also installed in the Songwriters Hall of Fame.

Livingston was born on 28 March, 1915, in the Pittsburgh suburb of McDonald.

He met Evans in 1937 at the University of Pennsylvania, where they were both students.

One of their first projects was on the film Private Snuffy Smith in 1942.

They went on to work on other many other scores including My Friend Irma starring Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis, Here Comes the Girls featuring Bob Hope as well as Alfred Hitchcock's The Man Who Knew Too Much.

Later their work was featured in films such as the Godfather Part III and Hudson Hunk.