John Williams is almost certainly the most well-known film composer, and possibly to many people the best-known composer, period. John Towner Williams was born on Long Island, near New York City, on the 8th of February 1932 into a musical family. In 1948, the family relocated to Los Angeles, where he studied music at the UCLA, after which he did his national service in the Air Force. Born in New York, Williams started out doing television work composing for Irwin Allen shows like “Lost in Space”, “Time Tunnel” and “Land of the Giants”. His first brush with Hollywood was as a pianist. During the Golden Age of Hollywood Cinema, he worked as a pianist and arranger with film music luminaries such as Alfed Newmann, Franz Waxmann Henri Mancini.
For the first time in his career, John Williams asked to do a movie score, Memoirs of a Geisha directed by the brilliant Rob Marshall (Chicago). At the age of 73, the most honored composer John Williams wanted a challenge that would stretch his skills in to a new area- and he succeeded brilliantly! John Williams Geisha score has been nominated for the Oscar, as is his score for Munich, so again he is running against himself and could divide his own vote. Memoirs of a Geisha has also been deservedly nominated for both Sound Editing and Sound Mixing.
In 1967, John Williams made the A List of movie composers when he wrote the Oscar-nominated score for The Valley of the Dolls. John Williams has scored nearly 90 films and has been Oscar nominated over forty times. He has several times been nominated for more than one movie in a single year, as he was for both Munich and Memoirs of a Geisha.
John Williams themes for Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Superman, and ET have great appeal for the general public and his movie score albums are top sellers. John Williams compositions for the Olympic ceremonies capture the true spirit of the games. Williams composed the well-known NBC News theme The Mission.
From 1980 to 1993, along with all his other work, John Williams was the conductor and musical director of the famed and much loved Boston Pops Orchestra, where he is still a guest conductor. He is also Artist in Residence at Tanglewood.
Williams’ music is firmly from the classical tradition, based heavily on the style of the late romantic such as Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. An interesting documentary about John Williams’ film music has appeared on youtube, made during the making of “The Empire Strikes Back” but including many clips from his films and comments from Lucas and Spielberg.
John Williams was the Grand Marshall of the 2004 Rose Parade which was seen around the world on New Year’s Day. John Williams got a standing ovation that wouldnt stop from the million people at the Capitol Fourth Celebration on the Washington Mall and East Lawn, July 4th, 2003. He has won more than 50 awards for his musical masterpieces.