Morton Stevens was born in Newark, NJ, 1929.  He graduated from the Juilliard School in 1950 and within a few years began working as an arranger/conductor for Sammy Davis Jr., touring around the world and performing in Las Vegas with the “Rat Pack”.  
 
In the early 1960’s,  he left Mr. Davis to pursue other opportunities and in 1965, he became the musical director for CBS West Coast. It was 1967 when Morton was approached by his friend Lenny Freeman (who often referred to Morty as a stone-cold genius) during their weekly poker game to compose a theme for his new show,  Hawaii 5 0.  The show and the theme were a huge success, earning Morton two Emmy awards (1970 and 1974).  This was in addition to being nominated seven other times for his work on several episodes of the television programs Gunsmoke, The Man From Uncle, Dr Kildare and the theme for Police Woman.

Morton’s work also included scores for films and TV movies such as Wild and Wonderful, The Spy With A Face, Deadly Harvest, Cimarron Strip, The Strangers in 7A, She Waits, Coffee Tea or Me, The Horror at 37,000 Feet, The Disappearance of Flight 412, Storefront Lawyers, Code Name: Diamond Head, Time Travelers, the CBS Thursday Night Movie theme, several episodes of Gilligan's Island, Perry Mason and Matlock,  among many others.

In 1977 he left CBS and continued composing music, creating  such masterpieces for Arthur Hailey’s TV series Wheels, The One-Man Jury, Women in White, Masada,  Apples Way,  Matt Helm, The Great White, They Still Call Me Bruce, Act of Privacy, Backstairs at The Whitehouse, Manions of America, and the Jerry Lewis  films -- Hardly Working, Slapstick of Another Kind, Smorgasbord and Cracking Up. In addition, he composed the original score for Alice in Wonderland 1985 alongside Steve Allen, who created the songs.

In 1988, he reconnected with Sammy Davis Jr and became the musical director for The Ultimate Tour featuring Sammy, Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and—after Martin left - Liza Minnelli. The tour ended in 1990 and Morton went on to compose for Steven Spielberg’s Tiny Toon Adventures. 
 
Morton Stevens had a life full of adventure, incredible success, fun and most importantly, love. He passed away of pancreatic cancer  in Encino, California at the age of 62.  He was survived by his beloved wife of 33 years - Annie, his daughter Lisa, son Mark and brother Abe Suckno.