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Buddy Pepper (April 21, 1922 – February 7, 1993) was an American composer, arranger and actor working mostly in the motion picture industry. He is remembered as being one of three writers of the song "Vaya Con Dios", which has been recorded over 500 times.
Early life
Buddy Pepper was born Jack Retherford Starkey in La Grange, Kentucky on April 12, 1922. He made his professional debut as a singing pianist and actor when he was 5, and at age 11 was a featured piano soloist with the Steedman Symphony Orchestra in Louisville. He won a Major Bowes Amateur Hour contest at age 13, then entered vaudeville. For two years he was featured in the Broadway and Hollywood musical revue Meet the People, appearing as the younger brother of actor Jack Pepper and adopting the name Little Buddy Pepper.
Acting career
As a teenager, Pepper appeared in eleven feature films, including Seventeen, with Jackie Cooper (1940); The Reluctant Dragon, with Robert Benchley (1941), and Men of Boys Town, with Spencer Tracy (1941).
Musical career
After service in the Army Air Corps during World War II, Pepper became a composer and lyricist for Universal Studios. He scored the Donald O'Connor picture Mister Big, and wrote songs for several other O'Connor films. Usually collaborating with Inez James, and sometimes others, he contributed songs to thirteen films in all, including The Hucksters (1947), Because of You (1952), Pillow Talk (1959), and Portrait in Black (1960).
He is credited with co-writing the title song from Pillow Talk, sung by Doris Day in the film. The film's score was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Dramatic or Comedy Score in 1959, but it is not clear how the title song related to this nomination.
With Larry Russell and Inez James he wrote "Vaya Con Dios", which was a U.S. #1 hit by Les Paul and Mary Ford in 1953.
Outside his movie songwriting activities, Buddy Pepper was an accompanist for Judy Garland and Marlene Dietrich, and was an arranger and conductor for such stars as Gordon MacRae, Jane Russell, and Margaret Whiting.
Buddy Pepper died, aged 70, on February 7, 1993 at his home in Sherman Oaks, California. The cause of death was heart failure.