Born in Oregon in 1914, George Bruns was the son of a sawmill worker. He took music lessons as a child, becoming proficient on the piano, tuba and trombone. He attended Oregon State Agricultural College, and in order to pay tuition he played in the ROTC band. Deciding on a musical career, he left college to be a full-time musician, and was soon playing with the likes of Jack Teagarden.
After World War II, he began playing with various swing and jazz bands, then formed his own group (among whom was a trumpet player named Doc Severinsen). In addition to having his own band, he was also musical director at several Portland (OR) radio stations. In 1948 he left Portland for Los Angeles, where he played for orchestras such as the Turk Murphy Band. In 1953 he was hired by UPA Studios as the composer for a cartoon called Little Boy with a Big Horn (1953). The award-winning short launched his career, and over the next few years he composed music for a dozen more pictures.
He was hired by Walt Disney Studios in 1953 to compose the score for La belle au bois dormant (1959). While working on that, he was asked to come up with a song to fill a 3.5-minute gap in a multi-part TV series the studio was shooting. He got together with lyricist Thomas W. Blackburn, and they came up with what would become a landmark song and series of the 1950s: "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" from Davy Crockett roi des trappeurs (1955).
Bruns was then assigned by Disney to write songs for its upcoming childrens show, The Mickey Mouse Club (1955). He spent nearly 20 years at the studio, working on the scores of nearly 40 films and several TV series and specials. He received an Academy Award nomination for his scores for "Sleeping Beauty", Babes in Toyland (1961) and Merlin l'enchanteur (1963), and another nomination for the song "Love" from Robin des bois (1973).
He retired in 1976, moved back to Oregon, and died of a heart attack in Portland on May 23, 1983.
