Stevens graduated from the
Juilliard School in 1950, and within a few years began working as an arranger/conductor for
Sammy Davis Jr. After Davis's longtime conductor,
George Rhodes, died in 1985, Stevens was among those who filled that role again sporadically until Davis' death in 1990. In his later years, Stevens worked as conductor for other Vegas legends, including
Jerry Lewis, and was musical director for the "
Rat Pack" tour featuring Davis, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and—after Martin quit—
Liza Minnelli. His classic theme for
Hawaii Five-O was later re-recorded for the
remake of the television series in 2010. He won two
Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for his work on
Hawaii Five-O and was nominated seven other times for work on television programs, including the 1969
Hawaii Five-O pilot episode,
Gunsmoke and
Police Woman. His film work included scores for films and TV movies such as
Wild and Wonderful (1964),
The Spy with My Face (1965),
Deadly Harvest (1972),
The Strangers in 7A (1972),
The Horror at 37,000 Feet (1973),
The Disappearance of Flight 412 (1974),
Code Name: Diamond Head (1977),
Wheels (1978),
The One Man Jury (1978),
Women in White (1979),
Great White (1982)
They Still Call Me Bruce (1987),
Act of Piracy (1988) and the
Jerry Lewis films
Hardly Working (1980),
Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) and
Cracking Up (1983). In addition to "
Hawaii Five-O", Stevens worked on the earlier smash 1960s CBS Television series dealing with an island of a different kind: "
Gilligan's Island", 1964–1967, collaborating on the series with
composers
John Williams,
Gerald Fried,
Frank Comstock, and
Lyn Murray. A musical cue by Stevens from
Hawaii Five-O was adapted into the introductory music used to accompany the logo for CBS specials from 1973 to 1991. Stevens also composed "So Old, So Young", used as the theme music (in two separate arrangements) for CBS'
primetime (from 1966 to 1978) and
late night (from 1972 to 1985) movie broadcasts. Stevens died of
pancreatic cancer in Encino, California at the age of 62. ==References==