Ross Lee Finney

Ross Lee Finney Junior (December 23, 1906–February 4, 1997) was an American composer born in Wells, Minnesota who taught for many years at the University of Michigan. He received his early training at Carleton College and the University of Minnesota and also studied with Nadia Boulanger, Edward Burlingame Hill, Alban Berg (from 1931-2) and Roger Sessions (in 1935). In 1928 he spent a year at Harvard University and then joined the faculty at Smith College, where he founded the Smith College Archives and conducted the Northampton Chamber Orchestra. In 1935, his setting of poems by Archibald MacLeish won the Connecticut Valley Prize, and in 1937, his First String Quartet received a Pulitzer Scholarship Award. A Guggenheim Fellowship funded travel in Europe in 1937. During World War II, Finney served in the Office of Strategic Services, and received a Purple Heart and a Certificate of Merit.

In 1948, following a second Guggenheim Fellowship, Finney joined the University of Michigan faculty. There he was the founder of the University of Michigan Electronic Music Studio in 1965 and composed the score for the sesquicentennial celebration of the University of Michigan in 1967. He retired in 1974.

Ross Lee

Ross Lee is a British comedian, actor, and television presenter originally from Calverley, Pudsey, Leeds.

TV career

Ross Lee's Ghoulies

Lee was the host of Ross Lee's Ghoulies, a horror-comedy themed Saturday morning studio-based show which began broadcasting on Sunday 28 September and ended 13 December 2008 on Nickelodeon UK. It aired in two-hour blocks from 10am until 12pm, for 13 weeks. Lee appears as an apparent caricature of himself, as well as several different characters in sketches throughout the show.

Other TV appearances

Prior to Ross Lee's Ghoulies, Lee hosted a similar programme on CBBC entitled Chute!, which included various video clips and songs. He also made two appearances on Channel 4's Friday night comedy show Balls of Steel as the World's Worst (Occupation), portraying a taxi driver and a barman respectively. He also provided a voiceover on the DVD of the show. Lee did not appear in the second or third series of Balls of Steel.

Apart from Chute!, Lee appeared in other CBBC shows; once on SMart, and twice on TMi as Mark Rhodes' "friend", and on the last show for Flack's Musical Chairs. He was eliminated in the third round and received pie in his face. He later got his revenge, along with the other contenders, on Sam and Mark. He has also appeared in the Bo' Selecta! Christmas Special "Ho Ho Ho Selecta", and had a minor appearance on Look Around You in Episode Four where he played Andy Gough.