Hans Zimmer
1957 - present
German film score composer and music producer, who has composed music for over 100 films, including Hollywood blockbusters such as the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Gladiator, The Lion King, The Da Vinci Code, Angels & Demons and Sherlock Holmes.
Life and Music
- Zimmer spent the early part of his career in the United Kingdom before moving to the United States.
- He is the head of the film music division at DreamWorks studios, and works with other composers through the company which he founded, Remote Control Productions. His work is notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements.
- Zimmer was born in Frankfurt am Main, Germany and moved to London as a teenager. In an interview with the German television station ZDF in 2006 he commented: "My father died when I was just a child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend."
- Zimmer began his career playing keyboards and synthesizers.
- While living in London, Zimmer wrote advertising jingles for Air-Edel Associates.
- A turning point in Zimmer's career occurred with the 1988 film Rain Man. Hollywood director Barry Levinson was looking for someone to score Rain Man, and his wife heard the soundtrack CD of the anti-Apartheid drama A World Apart, for which Zimmer had composed the music. Levinson was impressed by Zimmer's work, and hired him to score Rain Man. In the score, Zimmer uses synthesizers mixed with steel drums.
- For the 1992 film The Power of One, Zimmer travelled to Africa in order to use African choirs and drums in the recording of the score. On the strength of this work, Disney Animation Studios approached Zimmer to compose the score for the 1994 film The Lion King. This was to be his first score for an animated film.
- Zimmer won numerous awards for his work on The Lion King, including an Academy Award for Best Music (Original Score), a Golden Globe, and two Grammys. In 1997, the score was adapted into a Broadway musical version, which won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 1998.
- In the 2000s, Zimmer has composed scores for Hollywood blockbuster films including Black Hawk Down (2001), Gladiator (2000), The Last Samurai (2003), The Da Vinci Code (2006) and The Simpsons Movie (2007).
- Zimmer is also noted for his work on the scores of Christopher Nolan's Batman Begins (2005) and The Dark Knight (2008), on which he collaborated with James Newton Howard.
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