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James Michael Bernard was a British film composer.
He was a pupil at Wellington College which had previously been attended by the future actor, Christopher Lee, who starred in many of Hammer's horror films, for which he wrote the score. While still a schoolboy, Bernard met Benjamin Britten when the composer visited the school to consult with the then art master, Kenneth Green, about the stage designs for Peter Grimes. Britten took interest in an inter-house music composition, and advised Bernard on a composition he was writing. The two stayed in touch during Bernard's service in the RAF from 1943 to 1946, and Britten encouraged him to learn the principles of composition. After being demobbed Bernard went to the Royal College of Music, studying under Imogen Holst and Herbert Howells. He graduated in 1949. In 1950 Britten approached him to copy out the vocal score of his new opera Billy Budd for his publishers Boosey & Hawkes. While doing this he stayed with Benjamin Britten at Aldeburgh. He went to the opening night with Benjamin Britten's housekeeper and the librettist, E. M. Forster.
Around the time Bernard graduated from the RCM, he met the writer and critic Paul Dehn with whom he started a professional relationship, but who also became his life partner. Paul Dehn asked James Bernard to collaborate with him on the original screen story for the Boulting Brothers film Seven Days to Noon. For this Paul Dehn and James Bernard shared the 1952 Academy Award for the Best Writing, Motion Picture Story.
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