1932-02-08 ( 93 years old ) in Queens, New York City, New York, USA
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.
Movies
Music by John Williams
2024-11-01
John Williams: A Legacy In Sound
2024-09-03
Disney Legends Awards Ceremony
2024-08-12
John Williams in Tokyo
2024-05-03
Anne-Sophie Mutter - Vivace
2023-03-28
The Fabelmans: A Family in Film
2023-02-14
If These Walls Could Sing
2022-09-03
Fiddler's Journey to the Big Screen
2022-04-29
The Stories of West Side Story
2022-03-02
Ennio
2022-02-17
John Williams Live - Music from the Movies
2021-12-25
A World Without Beethoven?
2020-09-15
John Williams: Live in Vienna
2020-06-01
The Skywalker Legacy
2020-03-18
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
2019-12-18
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
2019-10-25
Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge - Adventure Awaits
2019-09-29
Spielberg
2017-10-05
Score: A Film Music Documentary
2017-03-16
John Williams at the BBC
2016-03-18
John Williams: The Seventh Symphony
2016-01-02
A John Williams Celebration
2015-06-30
Lincoln: An American Journey
2013-01-16
The 'E.T.' Journals
2012-10-09
Return to Jurassic Park
2011-02-05
Music
2010-10-15
Jaws: The Inside Story
2010-06-16
Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me
2009-11-04
The Boys: The Sherman Brothers' Story
2009-04-24
No Subtitles Necessary: Laszlo & Vilmos
2009-01-11
Love Will Tear Us Apart
2007-01-01
Frankie Laine: An American Dreamer
2006-01-23
Star Wars: A Musical Journey
2005-05-03
Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
2004-12-09
The Revamping of Dracula
2004-10-19
When Star Wars Ruled the World
2004-09-18
The Music of 'Indiana Jones'
2003-10-21
Catch Me If You Can: Behind the Camera
2003-05-06
The Beginning: Making Episode I
2001-10-16
Taking Flight: The Development of 'Superman'
2001-05-01
Plotting 'Family Plot'
2001-03-06
Making 'Superman': Filming the Legend
2001-01-01
The Making of 'The Lost World'
1997-05-08
Star Wars: The Magic & the Mystery
1997-02-06
In the Teeth of Jaws
1997-01-01
The Making of 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'
1996-10-01
The Making of '1941'
1996-05-28
The Making of 'Jaws'
1995-11-28
The Secret Policeman’s Biggest Ball
1989-01-01
From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga
1983-12-03
The Making of The Empire Strikes Back
1980-09-22
Star Wars: Music by John Williams
1980-05-18
Star Wars Concert
1978-02-02
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