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  • BIRTH 08/02/1932
  • Country United States
  • SHOWS 4
  • MOVIES 18

John Williams

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scoresin cinema history. He has a distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration. He is best known for his collaborations with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and has received numerous accolades including 26 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. With 54 Academy Award nominations, he is the second-most nominated person, after Walt Disney, and is the oldest Oscar nominee in any category, at 91 years old.

Williams's early work as a film composer includes Valley of the Dolls (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Images and The Cowboys (both 1972), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974). He has collaborated with Spielberg since The Sugarland Express (1974), composing music for all but five of his feature films. He received five Academy Awards for Best Score for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Schindler's List (1993). Other memorable collaborations with Spielberg include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones franchise (1981–2023), Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and The Fabelmans (2022). He also scored Superman (1978), the first two Home Alone films (1990–1992), and the first three Harry Potter films (2001–2004).

Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor from 1980 to 1993 and is its laureate conductor. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games; NBC Sunday Night Football; "The Mission" theme (used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia); and the television series Lost in Space, Land of the Giants and Amazing Stories.

Among other accolades, he has received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2004, the National Medal of the Arts in 2009 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998, the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000 and the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2004. He has composed the score for nine of the top 25 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office. In 2022, Williams was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II, "for services to film music". In 2005, the American Film Institute placed Williams's score to Star Wars first on its list AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores; his scores for Jaws and E.T. also made the list. The Library of Congress entered the Star Wars soundtrack into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

Description above from the Wikipedia article John Williams, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

John Williams

Shows (4)

Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian
Disney Gallery: The Mandalorian
Self - Composer (archive footage)
The Academy Awards
The Academy Awards
Self
Playhouse 90
Playhouse 90
Self (Pianist)
60 Minutes
60 Minutes
Self

Movies (18)

Music by John Williams
Music by John Williams
Self - Composer
Return to Jurassic Park
Return to Jurassic Park
Self
John Williams in Tokyo
John Williams in Tokyo
Self
Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy
Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars…
Self
Spielberg
Spielberg
Self
The Making of 'Jaws'
The Making of 'Jaws'
Self
Jaws: The Inside Story
Jaws: The Inside Story
Self
John Williams: Live in Vienna
John Williams: Live in Vienna
Self - Conductor
The Making of 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'
The Making of 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'
Self
The Beginning: Making Episode I
The Beginning: Making Episode I
Self
Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones & Harrison Ford
Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones & Harrison…
Self
From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga
From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga
Self
Star Wars: A Musical Journey
Star Wars: A Musical Journey
Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen
Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen
self
If These Walls Could Sing
If These Walls Could Sing
Self
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story
Self
Star Wars: Within a Minute - The Making of Episode III
Star Wars: Within a Minute - The Making of…
Self
A World Without Beethoven?
A World Without Beethoven?
Self