Early life Scott was born in
Salinas, California. He received a
bachelor's degree in music from the
University of California, Berkeley in 1939. He began working in radio broadcasting after graduation.
Career Scott was named the
West Coast music director for
Blue Network, which was owned by
NBC, in 1942. However, he was soon drafted into the
United States Army during
World War II, where he wrote music and played the
trombone for the
Air Transport Command Band, based in Long Beach, California. He later
conducted shows on the
Armed Forces Radio Service such as
Command Performance. Following the end of World War II, Scott was hired by
Republic Pictures as a staff composer for six years, beginning in 1946. He composed, conducted or orchestrated "dozens" of
film scores for Republic Pictures, including
Heart of the Rockies and
Wake of the Red Witch, starring
John Wayne. Though much of his career would focus on scoring for television, his later
film credits at other
film studios included MGM's 1961
X-15 and
Montana Belle, which was released by
RKO Pictures in 1953. Scott left Republic Pictures in 1952. Beginning in the early 1950s, Scott spent most of his career composing for television. Starting in 1952, Scott orchestrated and
arranged music for
Dragnet's original composer,
Walter Schumann. Scott did the arrangements for all
Dragnet episodes, until the show's
series finale in 1959. Scott also composed the score for approximately six
Dragnet episodes. Scott wrote the theme music for the 1964 dramatic series, ''
Slattery's People, which aired during the 1964-1965 television season. He also worked on the Twilight Zone for two episodes, scoring the music for A Stop at Willoughby'' in 1960. In 1963, Scott began working on the classic television series,
Lassie. He scored virtually all the episodes of
Lassie (except for 4) until the show ended its run in 1974. His 1950s and 1960s television credits included episodes of
My Three Sons,
Steve Canyon,
The Untouchables,
Rawhide and
Wagon Train. Scott orchestrated for a number of other prominent television and film composers beginning in the 1970s, including
Quincy Jones on
The Color Purple, his son
Tom Scott in
Hanky Panky and
Stu Phillips for
The Fall Guy and
Battlestar Galactica. Nathan Scott died of natural causes at his home in
Sherman Oaks, California, on February 27, 2010, at the age of 94. He was survived by his son,
Grammy-winning
saxophonist Tom Scott; his second wife, Frances McCune Scott; his daughter, Linda Colley; his brother and two grandchildren. His first wife, Margery, died in 1995. ==Selected filmography==