New York, NY (Top40 Charts) Oscar-winning composer
James Horner has died in a plane crash in California aged 61.
James Horner died in a light aircraft crash near
Santa Barbara, his assistant confirmed.
The identity of the pilot remained unknown after the small two-seater S-312 Tucano MK1 turbo-prop aeroplane, registered in
James Horner's name, came down in Southern California on Monday at around 9.30am.
Biography:
James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 - June 22, 2015) was an American composer, conductor and orchestrator of film music. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements in many of his film scores, and for frequent use of Celtic musical elements.
Horner was an accomplished concert hall composer before he moved into writing film scores. His first major film score was for the 1979 film The Lady in Red, but did not establish himself as a mainstream composer until he worked on the 1982 film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. Horner's score for Titanic is the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time while Titanic and Avatar, both directed by
James Cameron, are the two highest-grossing films of all time. He has also collaborated multiple times with directors Jean-Jacques Annaud, Mel Gibson, Walter Hill, Ron
Howard and Joe Johnston. Horner composed music for over 100 films, and won two Academy Awards, two Golden
Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, and was nominated for three British Academy Film Awards.
Horner died while piloting his Tucano turboprop aircraft on June 22, 2015, at the age of 61.
Horner was born in Los Angeles in 1953, the son of Joan and Harry Horner. His father was a set designer and occasional art-director. He had a brother, Christopher, who is a writer and documentary film maker.
Horner started playing piano at the age of five. His early years were spent in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music. He subsequently attended Verde Valley High School in Sedona, Arizona. He received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California. After he earned a master's degree he started working on his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles, where he studied with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film
Institute in the 1970s, he finished teaching a course in music theory at UCLA and turned to film scoring.
Horner was also an avid pilot.
One of Horner's first major film scores was for the 1979 film The Lady in Red. He began his career scoring films by working for B film director and producer
Roger Corman. His first composer credit was for Corman's
Battle Beyond the Stars. His works steadily gained notice in Hollywood, which led him to take on larger projects. Horner made a breakthrough in 1982, when he had the chance to score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, establishing himself as a mainstream composer. The film's director Nicholas Meyer famously quipped that Horner had been hired because the studio couldn't afford to use the first film's composer Jerry Goldsmith again, but by the time Meyer returned to the franchise with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the director found that he couldn't afford Horner either.
Horner continued composing music for high-profile releases during the 1980s, including 48 Hrs. (1982), Krull (1983), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Commando (1985), Cocoon (1985), Aliens (1986), *batteries not included (1987),
Willow (1988), Glory and Field of Dreams (both 1989).
Aliens earned Horner his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score in 1987, at the 59th Academy Awards. "
Somewhere Out There", which he co-composed for An American Tail, was also nominated that year for Best Original Song. He would go on to be nominated 10 times in total.
Throughout the 1980s and early 1990s and the 2000s, Horner also wrote orchestral scores for children's films (particularly those produced by Amblin Entertainment), with credits for An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), The Rocketeer and An American Tail: Fievel Goes West (1991), Once Upon a Forest and We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story (all in 1993), The Pagemaster (1994), and Casper, Jumanji, and Balto (all from 1995) and Mighty Joe Young (1998) and How the Grinch stole Christmas (2000).
1995 saw Horner produce no fewer than six scores, including his commercially successful and critically acclaimed works for Braveheart and Apollo 13, both of which earned him Academy Award nominations. Horner's greatest financial and critical success would come with the score to the 1997 film Titanic. The album became the best-selling primarily orchestral soundtrack in history, selling over 27 million copies worldwide.
At the 70th Academy Awards, Horner won Oscars for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song for "My
Heart Will Go On" (which he co-wrote with Will Jennings). In addition, Horner and Jennings won three Grammy Awards and two Golden
Globe Awards for the soundtrack and My
Heart Will Go On. Titanic also marked the first time in ten years that Horner worked with director
James Cameron (following the highly stressful scoring sessions for Aliens, Horner declared that he would never work with Cameron again and described the experience as "a nightmare").
Since Titanic, Horner continued to score for major productions (including The Perfect Storm, A Beautiful Mind,
Enemy At The Gates, The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro, House of Sand and Fog and Bicentennial Man). Aside from scoring major productions, Horner periodically worked on smaller projects such as Iris,
Radio and
Bobby Jones: A Stroke of Genius. He received his eighth and ninth Academy Award nominations for A Beautiful Mind (2001) and House of Sand and Fog (2003), but lost on both occasions to
Howard Shore. He frequently collaborated with film director Ron Howard, a partnership that began with Cocoon in 1985.
Horner composed the 2006-2011 theme music for the CBS Evening News. The theme was introduced as part of the debut of Katie Couric as anchor on
September 5, 2006.
Horner recollaborated with
James Cameron on the 2009 film Avatar, which was released in December 2009 and has since become the highest-grossing film of all time, surpassing Titanic (also directed by Cameron and scored by Horner). Horner spent over two years working on the score for Avatar, and did not take on any other projects during that time. His work on Avatar earned him numerous award nominations, including his tenth Academy Award nomination as well as Golden
Globe Award, British Academy Film Award, and Grammy Award nominations, all of which he lost to Michael Giacchino for Up.
Regarding the experience of scoring Avatar, Horner said, "Avatar has been the most difficult film I have worked on and the biggest job I have undertaken... I work from four in the morning to about ten at night and that's been my way of life since March. That's the world I'm in now and it makes you feel estranged from everything. I'll have to recover from that and get my head out of Avatar."
Horner also composed the score for the 2010 version of The Karate Kid, replacing Atli Örvarsson. This film—the first that Horner worked on after Avatar —was released in 2010. In 2011, Horner scored Cristiada (aka For Greater Glory) which was released a year later and
Black Gold. In 2012 Horner scored The Amazing Spider-Man, which starred Andrew Garfield and premiered on July 3. In a recent interview on his website, Horner revealed why he didn't return to compose the second movie; that he didn't like how the movie resulted in comparison to the first movie, and even called the movie "dreadful." Upon his departure, he was replaced by Hans Zimmer.
At the beginning of 2015, Horner wrote the music for Jean-Jacques Annaud's adventure film Wolf Totem, which marked his fourth collaboration with Annaud and also Horner's first film score in nearly three years.
At the time of his death in 2015, projects to which Horner was attached included the forthcoming film The 33 for director
Patricia Riggen, and Southpaw, a sports drama film directed by Antoine Fuqua and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Rachel McAdams. Both films are slated for release later in 2015.
Horner's scores have been sampled in trailers for other films. The climax of the track Bishop's Countdown from his score for Aliens ranks fifth in the most commonly used soundtrack cues for film trailers.
In 2014, Horner composed the commission piece Pas de Deux, a
Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, which was premiered on November 12, 2014, by Mari and Hakon Samuelsen with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Vasily Petrenko. The work was commissioned to mark the 175th season of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic. Horner also composed Collage, a Concerto for Four Horns, which premiered on March 27, 2015, at the Royal Festival Hall in London by the
London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Jaime Martin, with
David Pyatt, John Ryan,
James Thatcher and Richard Watkins as soloists.
Many of
James Horner's works incorporate passages from his earlier compositions, and feature brief excerpts or rework themes from other classical composers. For example, his scores from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock include excerpts from
Alexander Nevsky and
Romeo and Juliet, both by Prokofiev, while the heroic theme from
Willow is based on that of Robert Schumann's Rhenish Symphony. The climactic battle scene in Glory includes excerpts from Wagner and Orff.
Although "musical borrowing" has been commonplace since the Middle Ages, and was practiced by composers such as Georg Friedrich Händel, who borrowed extensively from composers such as Alessandro and Domenico Scarlatti and Georg Philipp Telemann; a frequent criticism of Horner has been that his tendency to borrow passages from other composers as well as his own earlier work makes his compositions inauthentic or unoriginal.
On June 22, 2015, an airplane registered to
James Horner crashed in the Los Padres
National Forest in southern California. The pilot died in the crash and was the only person aboard. Though the crash victim was not immediately identified, Horner's attorney said, "we know it's his plane, and we know we haven't heard from him." Variety later confirmed Horner's death. His assistant wrote on her Facebook feed, "We have lost an amazing person with a huge heart and unbelievable talent died doing what he loved."
Awards and nominations
Horner won two Academy Awards, for Best Original Dramatic Score (Titanic) and Best Original Song ("My
Heart Will Go On") in 1998, and was nominated for an additional eight Oscars. He also won two Golden
Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, and has been nominated for three British Academy Film Awards.
In October 2013
James Horner received the Max Steiner Award at the Hollywood in Vienna Gala, an award given for extraordinary achievements in the field of film music.
In 2005, the American Film
Institute unveiled their list of the top twenty-five American film scores. Five of Horner's scores were among 250 nominees, making him the most nominated composer to not make the top twenty-five:
• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Braveheart (1995)
• Field of Dreams (1989)
• Glory (1989)
• Titanic (1997)
Grammy
• 1988: An American Tail - Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television
• 1988: "
Somewhere Out There" (from: An American Tail, Winner) - Song of The Year
• 1988: "
Somewhere Out There" (from: An American Tail, Winner) - Best Song Written specifically For a Motion Picture or Television
• 1990: Field of Dreams - Best Album of Original Instrumental Background Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television
• 1991: Glory (Winner) - Best Instrumental Composition Written for a Motion Picture or for Television
• 1996: "Whatever You Imagine" (from: The Pagemaster) - Best Song Written specifically For a Motion Picture or Television
• 1999: "My
Heart Will Go On" (from: Titanic, Winner) - Record of The Year
• 1999: "My
Heart Will Go On" (from: Titanic, Winner) - Song of The Year
• 1999: "My
Heart Will Go On" (from: Titanic, Winner) - Best Song Written For A Motion Picture or for Television
• 2003: A Beautiful Mind - Best Score
Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
• 2011: Avatar - Best Score
Soundtrack Album for Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
• 2011: "
I See You" (from: Avatar) - Best Song Written For A Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media
Discography
1978 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock [Disney]
1982 - Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan [Original Score]
1983 - Krull
1983 - Brainstorm
1983 - Something Wicked This Way Comes [Original Score]
1983 - Gorky Park [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
1984 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock [Original Soundtrack]
1985 -
Heaven Help Us [Original Scores]
1985 - Cocoon [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
1986 - An American Tail
1987 - Aliens [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
1988 -
Willow [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
1988 - The Land Before Time
1988 - Glory [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
1989 - Field of Dreams
1989 - Dad [Original Score]
1990 - Batteries Not Included
1990 - Cocoon: The Return [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
1990 - Star Trek III: The Search for Spock [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
1990 - Once Around
1990 - Vibes
1991 - Class Action
1991 - The Rocketeer (Music from the Original Motion Soundtrack)
1991 - American Tail 2: Fievel Goes West
1992 - Thunderheart
1992 - Sneakers [Original Score]
1992 - Patriot Games
1992 - Unlawful Entry
1993 - A Far Off Place
1993 - Once Upon a Forest
1993 - Horner: Seaching for
Bobby Fischer
1993 - The Man Without a Face
1993 - We're Back!: A Dinosaur's Story
1993 - We're Back! A Dinosaur's Story [Music from the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
1994 - The Pagemaster
1994 -
Legends of the Fall
1995 - Casper
1995 - Braveheart
1995 - Apollo 13 [Music from the Motion Picture]
1995 - Balto
1995 - Jumanji
1996 - Spitfire Grill [1996 Soundtrack]
1996 - To Gillian on Her 37th Birthday
1996 -
Ransom [Original Score]
1996 - Courage Under Fire
1997 - The Devil's Own
1997 - More
Music from Braveheart
1997 - Titanic [Music from the Motion Picture]
1998 - Deep Impact
1998 -
Heart of the Ocean
1998 - The Mask of Zorro
1998 - Titanic: The Essential
James Horner Film
Music Collection
1998 - Titanic and Other Film Scores of
James Horner
1998 - Back to Titanic
1998 - Mighty Joe Young [Original Soundtrack]
1999 - Bicentennial Man [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2000 - Name of the Rose
2000 - Freedom Song [Original Television Soundtrack]
2000 - The Perfect Storm
2000 - The Grinch [Original Soundtrack]
2001 -
Enemy at the Gates
2001 -
Battle Beyond the Stars / Humanoids from the Deep (Original Soundtracks from the
Roger Corman Classics)
2001 - Clear and Present Danger (Music from the Original Motion Picture Sountrack
2001 - A Beautiful Mind [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2001 - Project X [Original Score]
2002 - Iris [Music from the Motion Picture]
2002 - Windtalkers [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2002 - The Four Feathers [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2002 - Jack the Bear [Original Score]
2003 - Beyond Borders [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2003 - The Missing [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2003 - House of Sand and Fog [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2003 - Commando
2004 -
Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2004 - Troy [Music from the Motion Picture]
2004 - The Forgotten [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2005 - Flightplan [Original Score]
2005 - The Spiderwick Chronicles [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2005 - The Chumscrubber [Original Motion Picture Score]
2005 - The Legend of Zorro [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2006 - The New World [Music from the Motion Picture]
2006 - All the King's Men [Original Score]
2006 - Apocalypto
2008 - The Life Before Her Eyes [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
2008 - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
2008 - The Boy in the Striped Pajamas [Score]
2009 - Avatar
2012 -
Black Gold
2012 - The Amazing Spider-Man [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
For Greater Glory [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
Jade [Original Soundtrack]
All The King's Men [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
In Country [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
Black Gold [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
Southpaw [Original Motion Picture Soundtrack]
