Who composed the music for Billy Wilder's 1978 film Fedora?

Miklós Rózsa composed the music for Billy Wilder’s 1978 film Fedora.

Fedora is a West German–French drama written and directed by Wilder, with a screenplay by Wilder and I. A. L. Diamond. It adapts a novella from Tom Tryon’s Crowned Heads and follows an aging, secluded film star whose apparent return to the screen hides a disturbing secret. William Holden narrates and stars alongside Marthe Keller, José Ferrer, and Frances Sternhagen.

Rózsa was one of the major film composers of Hollywood’s classical era. His credits include Spellbound, The Lost Weekend, Double Indemnity, Ben-Hur, and El Cid. Fedora came late in his career, but its score reflects the dramatic, psychologically charged style that made him a natural fit for Wilder’s story about celebrity, identity, and manufactured youth.

The alternative names can cause confusion because Frederick Hollander, Adolph Deutsch, and Franz Waxman were all established composers associated with Hollywood and, in some cases, with films connected to Wilder’s era. Fedora’s credited composer, however, is Rózsa. The film also incorporates the song “C’est si bon,” separately credited to Henri Betti.