Randy Newman

Scored the Disney/Pixar film "Cars"; earned an Oscar nomination for Best Song for Our Town, which was sung by James Taylor

Was nominated for a grammy for his contribution on the soundtrack "Seabiscuit"

Picked up two Oscar nominations (his 15th and 16th) for the original score to the animated "Monsters, Inc." and the song "If I Didn't Have You" from the same film; won Best Original Song Academy Award

Earned 14th career Academy Award nomination for the song "A Fool in Love" from the film "Meet the Parents"

Penned the lively score for the animated sequel "Toy Story 2"; also wrote songs including "When She Loved You" for which he was nominated for an Academy Award

Earned three Oscar nominations for Best Song ("That'll Do"), Best Musical or Comedy Score ("A Bug's Life") and Best Dramatic Score ("Pleasantville")

Fired by director Wolfgang Petersen after completing score for "Air Force One"; Newman's work replaced by Jerry Goldsmith score

Picked up ninth Academy Award nomination for the score to the animated film "James and the Giant Peach"

First composition for the musical theater, "Faust", opened in September; concept recording released simultaneously; project put on hold after second production in Chicago met with mixed reviews; Newman wrote the book as well as the music and lyrics

Provided the song score to the first all-computer-generated animated motion picture "Toy Story"; nominated for Oscars in the categories of Best Musical or Comedy Score and Best Song ("You've Got a Friend")

Received Best Song Academy Award nomination for "Make Up Your Mind" from the film "The Paper", directed by Howard

Racked up fifth Oscar nomination for the dramatic score to "Avalon", helmed by Levinson

Garnered Best Song nomination for "I Love to See You Smile" from "Parenthood", directed by Ron Howard; song later used in toothpaste commercials

Co-scripted (with Steve Martin and Lorne Michaels) "Three Amigos!", as well as writing its songs; also appeared as a singing bush

Provided the lush underscore for "The Natural", directed by Barry Levinson; earned third Academy Award nomination

Composed film score for Milos Forman's "Ragtime"; received Oscar nominations for Best Original Score and Best Song ("One More Hour")

First commercial success with the song, "Short People"; led to first gold record for the album "Little Criminals"

Contributed an original song to "The Pursuit of Happiness"

Wrote first film score for Norman Lear's "Cold Turkey"

Began touring and performing in concert

Conducted music for film, "Performance"; movie not released until 1972

First US hit with Three Dog Night's recording of "Mama Told Me Not to Come"

First of own songs he recorded, "I Think It's Gonna Rain Today" and "Beehive State"; debut album, "Randy Newman Creates Something New Under the Sun"

Joined Reprise Records as a recording artist

Contributed first song ("Look at Me", co-written with Bobby Darin) to a Hollywood film ("The Lively Set")

Worked at the TV music library at 20th Century Fox; wrote music cues and themes for series produced by the studio, most notably "Peyton Place"

First recorded song, "They Tell Me It's Summer", a B side sung by the Fleetwoods

First TV credit, penned an untitled saxophone instrumental for an episode of "Dobie Gillis"

At age 17, became a $150-a-month contract song writer for Metro Music (part of Liberty) (date approximate)

Wrote first songs at age 15 (date approximate)

Began studying music theory (date approximate)

Started taking piano lessons at age six (date approximate)

Family settled in Los Angeles

Suffered from Epstein-Barr Syndrome