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John Williams
1932 - present
John Williams is the most prolific and widely honoured living composer of film music and the most Oscar-nominated man alive.
Music and Life
- He was born in New York but moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was 16. He attended UCLA and studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco.
- After service in the Air Force, Williams returned to New York to attend Juilliard where he studied piano with Rosina Lhevinne. He also worked as a jazz pianist in both clubs and on recordings.
- Williams moved back to Los Angeles and began his career in film studios working with such composers as Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and Franz Waxman.
- He went on to write music for many television programs in the 1960s, winning two Emmys for his work.
- Beginning with his first screen credit, for Because They're Young (1960), Williams' career as a composer of film scores gathered steady momentum. Soundtracks followed for I Passed for White (1960); Bachelor Flat (1961); The Secret Ways (1961); Diamond Head (1962); How to Steal a Million (1966) and countless others.
- In 1974 Steven Spielberg came to John Williams after being moved by his score to The Reivers to score Sugarland Express. It was the beginning of one of the greatest film composer/director collaborations ever. In the same year Williams scored Earthquake and then followed it with The Eiger Sanction (1975), Alfred Hitchcock's Family Plot (1976) Midway (1976), The Missouri Breaks (1976); Black Sunday (1977); Superman (1978); and the The Fury (1978).
- His first Oscar was for his adaption of the music for the screen version of Fiddler on the Roof. In 1976 he received his second for Jaws. In 1978, an Oscar for Star Wars followed in a competition that included his score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Oscars were also awarded for E.T. and the haunting Schindler's List soundtrack.
- Williams has composed the music and served as music director for more than seventy-five films including Jurassic Park 1& 2, Rosewood, Sleepers, Sabrina, Nixon, Home Alone 1&2, Far and Away, JFK, Hook, Presumed Innocent, Always, Born on the Fourth of July , Stanley and Iris, Indiana Jones saga, Star Wars trilogy, The Accidental Tourist, Empire of the Sun, The Witches of Eastwick, Superman , and Goodbye, Mr. Chips.
- In addition to his film music, Williams has written many concert pieces including two symphonies, a bassoon concerto, a cello concerto, concertos for flute and violin, a trumpet concerto, and concertos for clarinet and tuba.
- In January 1980, John Williams was named nineteenth conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra since its founding in 1885. Williams assumed the title of Boston Pops Laureate Conductor following his retirement in December 1993.
Did you know?
Williams has received almost 40 Academy Award nominations.
