Elmer Bernstein was educated at the Walden School and New York University. He served in the US Army Air Corps in World War II, writing scores for the service radio unit. He also wrote and arranged musical numbers for Glenn Miller's Army Air Force Band. A prolific and respected film music composer, he was a protégé of Aaron Copland, who studied music with Roger Sessions and Stefan Wolpe. Bernstein worked in various artistic endeavors, including painting and the theatre and also performed as an actor and dancer. Among his early composition work were scores for United Nations radio programs and television and industrial documentaries. His original scores for films range over an enormous variety of styles, with his groundbreaking jazz score for Altın Kollu Adam (1955), light musical comedies such as his Oscar-winning Tatlı Kızın Aşkı (1967) score, and perhaps his most familiar score, for the western Yedi silahşörler (1960). Between 1963 and 1969, Bernstein served as vice president of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences.

A few years before before his death, he acquired something of a cult status among fans of English football when his familiar main theme for Büyük Firar (1963) was adopted by them and hummed and played, lustily, during matches.