Von Dexter was born 9 December 1912 in Aurora, Illinois. He later moved to Chicago where his professional music career began while still at school playing in Chicago bars and night clubs. After gaining a music degree at USC he settled in California and became West Coast MD for NBC. From 1952 he was MD for Ralph Edwards’ ‘This Is Your Life’ and scored episodes of several TV series. After scoring four films for William Castle 1958-61, Dexter suffered from a hand condition resulting in stiffening of the fingers. This made it impossible to write film scores at the necessary speed. He and his wife Catherine moved to Reinbeck, Iowa, where they ran a music publishing business, Video Music. After Von Dexter died of lymphoma on 4 February 1996, Catherine carried on the business. Special thanks to Catherine for supplying this information.