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Alf Clausen

Composer Alf Clausen grew up in North Dakota and trained at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where he also eventually taught and received an honorary doctorate of music. Clausen is a prolific film and television composer, most notably as a composer for the exceptionally long-running animated TV classic "The Simpsons." (Ironically, Clausen was passed up for scoring "The Simpsons Movie"). Clausen created original music for the show for more than 20 years and well over 200 episodes. In the 1980s, Clausen composed music for the popular comedy series "Moonlighting," the drama "Fame," and the sitcom "Alf" (the name is a coincidence). He also worked on such iconic '80s comedies as "Splash," "Mr. Mom," "Weird Science," and "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." While working on "The Simpsons," he also composed for another Fox animated series, "The Critic," with Jon Lovitz. Clausen has won two Emmys and had countless nominations for his work on "The Simpsons." His career has also included composing for such legendary musicians as Buddy Rich and Ray Charles. In August 2017, it was announced that Clausen had been let go from "The Simpsons" in what was widely seen as a cost-cutting move that garnered vocal online disappointment from a large subset of the show's devoted fans.