Joel Goldsmith, the man responsible for creating the music found in three “Stargate” television programs, died this past Sunday (April 29th). He was only 54 years-old. The cause of death has not yet been released.

The talented musician’s instrumental contributions didn’t begin and end with the “Stargate” franchise. Goldsmith has been supplying scores to a wide variety of television shows and motion pictures since 1978. One of the first films he scored was director Michael Rae’s gloriously awful B-movie classic “Laserblast”, a film that really needs to be seen to be believed. From there, Goldsmith moved on to such cinematic endeavors as “The Man with Two Brains”, “Man’s Best Friend”, and the Dolph Lundgren actioner “Army of One”.

Joel Goldsmith, in case you were wondering, is the son of famed composer Jerry Goldsmith. The two men collaborated for the science fiction film “Star Trek: First Contact”.

“I’m utterly heartbroken at the loss of my dear friend and mentor Joel Goldsmith,” said friend and fellow composer Neal Acree. “He was like a second father to me and I feel like I owe much of my career to the opportunities he gave me including my first feature film and first experience scoring television. His influence on my life, both personally and musically, will stay with me always.”

As a fan of several low-budget movies Goldsmith worked on back in the day, I am quite saddened by this news. He helped bring quite a bit of joy to this film fanatic’s life over the years, and his contributions to the “Stargate” series will surely be missed by the show’s legion of fans.