R.I.P.: Alf Clausen, Emmy-Winning Composer

Alf Clausen, the Emmy-winning composer best known for scoring The Simpsons for 27 years, passed away on Thursday, at his home in Valley Village, Los Angeles. He was 84. His daughter, Kaarin Clausen, confirmed his death, noting he had battled Parkinson’s disease for about eight years.

Born on March 28, 1941, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, Clausen was a prolific composer whose work shaped the sound of iconic TV shows. He scored over 560 episodes of The Simpsons from 1990 to 2017, starting with the “Treehouse of Horror” episode in Season 2. His versatile scores, performed with a 35-piece orchestra, ranged from jazz to show tunes to parodies of film scores, earning him two Emmy Awards (1997 for “We Put the Spring in Springfield” and 1998 for “You’re Checkin’ In”) and 21 Emmy nominations for the series. He also won five Annie Awards and holds a record for 30 career Emmy nominations, making him one of the most-nominated composers in Emmy history.
Clausen’s other notable works include:

• 
  Moonlighting (1985–1989): Composed for 63 episodes, earning six Emmy nominations and two wins for “The Dream Sequence Always Rings Twice” (1985) and “Atomic Shakespeare” (1986).
• ALF (1986–1990): Scored nearly 100 episodes and wrote the theme song, jokingly claiming he “granted them the rights to use my face as a likeness.”
• Other Projects: Contributed to The Critic, Bette, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, The Naked Gun, and variety shows like Donny & Marie. He also worked with big bands led by Buddy Rich and Ray Charles.

Clausen began his musical journey playing French horn and piano, inspired by Henry Mancini. He studied at North Dakota State University, the University of Wisconsin, and Berklee College of Music, where he earned a diploma in arranging and composition in 1966. Moving to Los Angeles in 1967, he started as a music copyist for shows like MASH* before becoming a full-time composer.

In 2017, Clausen was fired from The Simpsons after 27 years, replaced by Bleeding Fingers Music, a collective using synthesized music to cut costs by 40%. Producers cited dissatisfaction with his work on the hip-hop-themed episode “The Great Phatsby” and claimed he delegated tasks to his son, Scott, without permission. Clausen sued Disney and Fox in 2019, alleging age and disability discrimination due to his Parkinson’s diagnosis. The lawsuit was partially dismissed in 2020, and Clausen dropped it in 2022 after an appeal seemed unlikely to succeed. He was later credited as “Composer Emeritus” for his contributions