Jazz saxophonist Plas Johnson, who played the "Pink Panther" theme, dies at 94

Plas Johnson, the jazz saxophonist best known for his solo on the theme to "The Pink Panther," has died in Granada Hills, the Los Angeles Times reported. He was 94. His death was first reported by his hometown newspaper in Louisiana, the Donaldsonville Chief, and no cause of death was given.

Johnson built his career as one of Los Angeles's most in-demand session and live players, backing Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole and Marvin Gaye, and serving as a regular in Henry Mancini's orchestra through the 1950s and '60s. He described his approach to studio work plainly in one interview: "You don't improve your jazz in the studio. You're in the studio because of the jazz and blues that you know." He said his solos were built to lift a record within eight or twelve bars, sometimes filling in behind the vocalist afterward.

No solo defined his career like the one on Mancini's 1963 theme to "The Pink Panther." The nimble, unmistakable saxophone line became shorthand for a whole era of sly jazz cool, won three Grammy Awards and earned an Oscar nomination for original score; the American Film Institute later ranked it among the top 20 film scores of all time.

Johnson learned saxophone from his father before attending the Westlake School of Music in Los Angeles following his Army service in 1951. He joined Merv Griffin's studio band in 1970 and, decades later, appeared in the 2008 documentary "The Wrecking Crew," discussing the ambitious world of L.A. session musicians who anonymously played on hundreds of hit records in the 1960s and '70s.

Information about survivors was not immediately available. Long Beach jazz station KKJZ also memorialized Johnson's death, closing out a career that stretched from postwar Louisiana to some of the most recognizable recordings in American film and popular music.