At the height of his career in the 1950s and ‘60s, he was best known for scoring B movies produced by American International Pictures and Roger Corman.
Born in St. Louis, Missouri, Stein wrote scores for many low budget horror and exploitation films during the 1950s and 1960s, most of which were released by American International Pictures.
He also provided scores for major studio productions such as Francis Ford Coppola's The Rain People, and Richard Rush's Getting Straight.
Stein also taught composition, arranging, orchestration and theory at the University of Colorado Denver in the mid to late 1980s.
[1] Some of Stein's papers and scores, especially for the films Not of This Earth and Of Love and Desire can be found in the archives of the Music Library at Washington University in St. Louis.