Anton Karas Anton Karas Anton Karas (7 July 1906 – 10 January 1985) was a Viennese zither player and composer, best known for his internationally famous 1948 soundtrack to Carol Reed's "The Third Man", which came about as a result of a chance meeting. Born in Vienna, one of five children of a factory worker, Anton Karas was already keen on music as a child. He wanted to become a band leader, which because of the family's financial situation was impossible. However, he was allowed to learn to play an instrument, as were his two brothers and two sisters. He later reported
Anton Karas many of the British element of the Allied Control Commission for Austria. Robert Baty, the young son of the Director of Education, C.W. Baty, was given the task of showing the director around the city. On the second day they stopped at a "Heuriger", a wine tavern where growers offer their own wines for sale directly, and heard Karas playing the zither in the background. This is described in Karas' L.A. Times/Reuters obituary which states that: Reed, desperately searching for a theme tune ... chanced on the tavern in Vienna's Grinzing wine-growing district. Struck by the simple zither melodies, Reed