Age: 77
male
Alan Irwin Menken (born July 12, 1949) is an American composer, pianist, music director, and record producer, best known for his scores and songs for films produced by Walt Disney Animation Studios. Menken's music for The Little Mermaid (1989), Beauty and the Beast (1991), Aladdin (1992), and Pocahontas (1995) has each won him two Academy Awards. He also composed the scores and songs for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Newsies (1992), The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1996), Hercules (1997), Home on the Range (2004), Enchanted (2007), Tangled (2010), and Disenchanted (2022), among others. His accolades include winning eight Academy Awards — becoming the second most prolific Oscar winner in the music categories after Alfred Newman (who has 9 Oscars), a Tony Award, eleven Grammy Awards, seven Golden Globe Awards, and a Daytime Emmy Award. Menken is one of nineteen people to have won an Emmy, a Grammy, an Oscar and a Tony ("an EGOT").
Stolen from Mount Olympus as an infant by Hades’ bumbling minions, Hercules grows up on Earth as an awkward outcast cursed with godlike strength. When he discovers his true divine heritage, his father Zeus reveals that he can only reclaim his place among the gods by becoming a true hero. To achieve this, Hercules trains under the cynical satyr Philoctetes and transforms into a celebrity gladiator, defeating every legendary monster Hades sends his way. Along his journey to fame, he falls for the fiercely independent Megara, unaware that she is trapped in a contract selling her soul to Hades. As the God of the Underworld launches a catastrophic war to overthrow Olympus using the Titans, Hercules must face his greatest trial yet. He learns that true heroism is not measured by the size of his muscles or physical power, but by the ultimate strength of his heart.
