Henry Mancini was born April 16, 1924, in Cleveland, OH, and named Enrico by his Italian immigrant parents. In the late 1920s, the Mancinis moved to Pennsylvania when Henry's father found work at a steel mill in the Pittsburgh area. Henry learned to play the piccolo from his father, took formal flute and piano lessons, and began writing music arrangements on his own. The fall before his 18th birthday he entered New York's Juilliard School of Music on a scholarship.

At 18, Mancini was drafted into the Army Air Corps and assigned to a military band led by Norman Leyden. After World War II ended, Mancini went back to New York, where Leyden, then chief arranger for the reorganized Glenn Miller Orchestra (Miller had died in the war), recommended him for a job. The orchestra's new leader, Tex Beneke, hired him as a pianist. In 1947, Mancini married Ginny O'Connor, a singer with the band, and moved to Burbank, CA, where he found various jobs performing, composing and arranging music.

In 1952 Mancini wrote music for Lost in Alaska, an Abbott and Costello film, which led to more work, including arrangements for The Glenn Miller Story (1954).

One of his earliest complete scores was written in 1957 for Man Afraid. The next year he scored Orson Welles's Touch of Evil and wrote music for Peter Gunn, a TV drama produced and directed by Blake Edwards. Mancini's first record album, The Music from Peter Gunn, sold more than a million copies, a first for a jazz album. It won two Grammys: Best Arrangement and Album of the Year, and made Mancini a recording star.

From the 1950s to the early 1990s, Henry Mancini wrote complete scores for more than 70 films, many of which showed how expressive the jazz form could be. He collaborated with Blake Edwards on several movies, notably Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), The Pink Panther (1964), The Great Race (1965) and 10 (1979). With other directors, he worked on various films including Charade (1963) and Wait Until Dark (1967), among others. Mancini also wrote themes for Mr. Lucky, Newhart, Remington Steele, Hotel and other TV shows. Mancini died on June 14, 1994. Each year, in his honor, the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers presents the Henry Mancini Award to someone following in his footsteps, another talented individual who has made outstanding achievements and contributions to the music of film and television.

Mancini's legacy also continues through the work of the Henry Mancini Institute. Based in Los Angeles, this nonprofit organization was established in 1997 by the late composer/arranger Jack Elliott to honor Mancini and nurture the future of music.