Chris Ledesma, who served as the beloved music editor of The Simpsons on each of the first 734 episodes, from the premiere of the Fox animated series in 1989 to an episode of the 34th season in November, has died. He was 64.
Ledesma died in Los Angeles on Dec. 16, a spokesperson for the show said The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was revealed.
Ledesma was hired to fill in as music editor at Fox’s The Tracey Ullman ShowWhere The Simpsons started out as a series of shorts playing in and out of commercials. He then started the spin-off on November 22, 1989.
“I was skeptical about turning on the little 30 and 60 second featurettes Tracey in a full-fledged half-hour show,” he said wrote on his blog in 2011. “That all went out the window as soon as I saw the first two shows.”
Ledesma noted on Twitter in September 2021 that he had attended The Simpsons for more than half of his life. He was then 23,242 days old and had been employed for 11,621 days.
He left the show in Mayand its final Simpsons episode aired in November as the eighth episode of Season 34. On Sunday night, the series paid tribute to him with an end title card that read, “In Memory of Chris Ledesma.”
Christopher Frederick Ledesma was born in Los Angeles on January 28, 1958. He began playing piano by ear at the age of 3 and then took formal trumpet lessons starting in third grade.
While at CalArts, he decided to pursue a career in music editing after serving in a student film role in that capacity. He also majored in orchestral conducting at the San Francisco Conservatory of Music.
When he wasn’t on the streetcar guiding at Universal Studios Hollywood, Ledesma attended music sessions for shows like Murder she wrote, Magnum PI, sky wolf and Great storys. He called that “an invaluable education that could never have been offered in a college or university”.
In September 1985, Ledesma landed a job as an apprentice music editor at leading music editing house Segue Music, curating critically acclaimed MTM Enterprises shows including Hillstreet blues and St Elsewhere. He then worked for Music Design Group and Music Works before founding his own company Click Track Inc. in 1992. founded.
(Through all this, he didn’t give up his job on the Universal Studios tour until the spring of 1988.)
Starring in 1994, the two-time Emmy nominee was also a music editor on another animated show, The criticcreated by Al Jean and Mike Reiss from The Simpsons.
September 2014, he held a tribute until Simpsons composer Alf Clausen, with whom he worked so closely for so many years, at the Hollywood Bowl.
His resume also included the films Back in the USSR (1991), Dark shadows (1991), Pure Country (1992), Robin Hood: Men in leotards (1993), Dracula: Dead and loving (1995), Blast from the past (1999) and Dudley Do-Right (1999); 20 Hallmark Hall of Fame Television Movies; the 1988 miniseries War and memory; and the 1993 TV movie Gypsy, starring Bette Midler. (He received Emmy nominations for those last two projects.)
Survivors include his wife, Michelle; two daughters and two sons-in-law; and three grandchildren.
“The most rewarding part of the job for me is being able to support and care for my family, and working with really nice people on a show that makes other people happy,” he said.
Courtesy of Walt Disney Co.
