Mr. Washington was prominent in the worlds of motion pictures and music, writing the lyrics for more than 140 songs for films produced by Warner Brothers, Metro‐Goldwyn‐Mayer, Columbia Studios, Allied Artists, Paramount and other major companies.

Mr. Washington was born in Scranton, Pa., and began his writing career at the age of 12, when he started contributing poetry to local newspapers. After his family moved to Norfolk, Va., he continued to publish in dailies, and, eventually, in national magazines.

He left home at the age of 21, to enter show business in New York City. He began his career as a vaudeville Master of Ceremonies, where he not only introduced acts, but also acted as agent for some of them. He began writing songs in 1928, undaunted by the fact that he was the only one of the nine Washington children who never had any musical training. His first success came in 1928 with the song “Singing in the Bathtub,” which was included in the music revue, Earl Carroll Vanities of 1929. In 1929 Warner Brothers signed him to come to Hollywood and write songs for the then new “talkies.”

While he also wrote songs and material for such Broadway productions as “Earl Carroll’s Vanities,” “Vanderbilt Revue,” “Murder at the Vanities,” “Tattle Tales” and Lew Leslie’s ‘Blackbirds,” he was best known for his three decades of contributions to motion‐picture music.

His film‐title songs included “Arise My Love,” “Reap the Wild Wind,” “On Green Dolphin Street,” “The Long Night,” “My Foolish Heart,” “The Greatest Show on Earth,” “Happy Time,” “Take the High Ground,” “Rawhide,” “The High and the Mighty,” “Town Without Pity,” “Ship of Fools” and “Circus World” (Golden Globe Award, 1965).

Among Mr. Washington’s hundreds of songs are “The Nearness of You,” “My Foolish Heart,” “Stella by Starlight,” “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You,” “Smoke Rings,” Tommy Dorsey’s theme song “I’m Getting Sentimental Over You,” “La Cucaracha,” “Cosi‐Cosa,” “A Hundred Years From Today” and “Someday I’ll Meet You Again.”

In 1955 Mr. Washington was named to the executive committee of the music division of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. He was also active in the Dramatists Guild. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1972.  He served as a director of the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers from 1957 through 1976, and as vice president of the organization from 1964 until 1975.

Ned Washington died in Los Angeles, California on December 20, 1976.