John Williams is a film score composer.
Early life[]
John Towner Williams was born to Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams, a jazz drummer and percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. He has an older sister, Joan, and two younger brothers, Jerry and Don, who play on his film scores. Williams said of his lineage: "My father was a Maine man—we were very close. My mother was from Boston. My father's parents ran a department store in Bangor, Maine, and my mother's father was a cabinetmaker." Johnny Williams collaborated with Bernard Herrmann, and his son sometimes joined him in rehearsals.
In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles where John attended North Hollywood High School, graduating in 1950. He later attended the University of California, Los Angeles, and studied composition privately with the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Williams also attended Los Angeles City College for one semester, as the school had a Studio Jazz Band. In 1951, Williams joined the U.S. Air Force, where he played the piano and bass and conducted and arranged music for the U.S. Air Force Band as part of his assignments. In a 2016 interview with the U.S. Air Force Band, he recounted having attended basic training at Lackland Air Force Base, after which he served as a pianist and bass player, with secondary duties of making arrangements for three years. In March 1952, he was assigned to the Northeast Air Command 596th Air Force Band, stationed at Pepperrell Air Force Base in St. John's, Newfoundland. He also attended music courses at the University of Arizona as part of his service.
In 1955, following his Air Force service, Williams moved to New York City and entered Juilliard, where he studied piano with Rosina Lhévinne. He was originally set on becoming a concert pianist, but after hearing contemporary pianists like John Browning and Van Cliburn perform, he switched his focus to composition. "It became clear," he recalled, "that I could write better than I could play." During this time Williams worked as a pianist in many of the city's jazz clubs.
Film and television scoring[]
While fluent in many 20th-century musical languages, Williams's most familiar style is neoromanticism. Williams's score for Star Wars is often described as Wagnerian as it makes use of the leitmotif, a musical phrase associated with a place, character or idea.Williams downplays the influence of Wagner: "People say they hear Wagner in Star Wars, and I can only think, It's not because I put it there. Now, of course, I know that Wagner had a great influence on Korngold and all the early Hollywood composers. Wagner lives with us here—you can't escape it. I have been in the big river swimming with all of them."
1954–1973: Rise to prominence[]
Williams wrote his first film composition in 1952 while stationed at Pepperrell Air Force Base for a promotional film titled You Are Welcome, created for the Newfoundland tourist information office. Williams's first feature film composition was for Daddy-O (1958), and his first screen credit came two years later in Because They're Young. Williams also composed music for television, Bachelor Father (1957–59), the Kraft Suspense Theatre(1963–65), Lost in Space (1965–68), The Time Tunnel (1966–67) and Land of the Giants (1968-70), the last three created by the prolific producer Irwin Allen. He also worked on several episodes of M Squad (1957-1960) and Checkmate (1960–1962) and the pilot episode of Gilligan's Island (1964–67).
Williams called William Wyler's How to Steal a Million (1966) "the first film I ever did for a major, super-talent director". Williams received his first Oscar nomination for his score for Valley of the Dolls (1967) and was nominated again for Goodbye, Mr. Chips(1969). His first Oscar was for Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score, for Fiddler on the Roof (1971). He scored Robert Altman's psychological thriller Images (1972) and his neo-noir The Long Goodbye (1973), based on the novel of the same nameby Raymond Chandler. Pauline Kael wrote that "Altman does variations on Chandler's theme the way the John Williams score does variations the title song, which is tender in one scene, a funeral dirge in another. Williams' music is a parody of the movies' frequent overuse of a theme, and a demonstration of how adaptable a theme can be." Altman, known for giving actors free rein, had a similar approach to Williams, telling him "Do whatever you want. Do something you haven't done before." His prominence grew in the early 1970s thanks to his work for Irwin Allen's disaster films; he scored The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno and Earthquake (both 1974). Williams named his Images score as a favorite; he recalls "the score used all kinds of effects for piano, percussion, and strings. It had a debt to Varèse, whose music enormously interested me. If I had never written film scores, if I had proceeded writing concert music, it might have been in this vein. I think I would have enjoyed it. I might even have been fairly good at it. But my path didn't go that way." As it happened, Williams's scores for The Reivers(1969) and The Cowboys (1972) shaped the path his career went.
Films[]
| Year | Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 1958 | Daddy-O | |
| 1960 | I Passed for White | |
| Because They're Young | ||
| 1961 | The Secret Ways | |
| 1962 | Bachelor Flat | |
| 1963 | Diamond Head | |
| Gidget Goes to Rome | ||
| 1964 | The Killers | |
| 1965 | None but the Brave | |
| John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! | ||
| 1966 | The Rare Breed | |
| How to Steal a Million | ||
| The Plainsman | ||
| Not with My Wife, You Don't! | ||
| Penelope | ||
| 1967 | Valley of the Dolls | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Scoring of Music - Adaptation or Treatment |
| A Guide for the Married Man | ||
| Fitzwilly | ||
| 1968 | Sergeant Ryker | |
| 1969 | Daddy's Gone A-Hunting | |
| Goodbye, Mr. Chips | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Score of a Musical Picture - Original or Adaptation | |
| The Reivers | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (Not a Musical) | |
| 1971 | Fiddler on the Roof | Winner - Academy Award for Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score |
| 1972 | The Cowboys | |
| Images | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score | |
| The Poseidon Adventure | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score | |
| Pete 'n' Tillie | ||
| 1973 | The Long Goodbye | |
| Tom Sawyer | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Scoring: Original Song Score and Adaptation or Scoring: Adaptation | |
| The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing | ||
| The Paper Chase | ||
| Cinderella Liberty | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score | |
| 1974 | Conrack | |
| The Sugarland Express | ||
| Earthquake | ||
| The Towering Inferno | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score | |
| 1975 | The Eiger Sanction | |
| Jaws | Won - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1976 | Family Plot | |
| The Missouri Breaks | ||
| Midway | ||
| 1977 | Black Sunday | |
| Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope | Won - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| Close Encounters of the Third Kind | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1978 | The Fury | |
| Jaws 2 | ||
| Superman | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1979 | Dracula | |
| 1941 | ||
| 1980 | Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| 1981 | Heartbeeps | |
| Raiders of the Lost Ark | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1982 | E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial | Won - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| Monsignor | ||
| 1983 | Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| 1984 | Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| The River | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1986 | SpaceCamp | |
| 1987 | The Witches of Eastwick | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| Empire of the Sun | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1988 | The Accidental Tourist | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| 1989 | Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade | |
| Born on the Fourth of July | ||
| Always | ||
| 1990 | Stanley & Iris | |
| Presumed Innocent | ||
| Home Alone | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1991 | Hook | |
| JFK | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1992 | Far and Away | |
| Home Alone 2: Lost in New York | ||
| 1993 | Jurassic Park | |
| Schindler's List | Won - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 1995 | Sabrina | |
| Nixon | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Music or Comedy Score | |
| 1996 | Sleepers | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score |
| 1997 | Rosewood | |
| The Lost World: Jurassic Park | ||
| Seven Years in Tibet | ||
| Amistad | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score | |
| 1998 | Saving Private Ryan | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Dramatic Score |
| Stepmom | ||
| 1999 | Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace | |
| Angela's Ashes | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 2000 | The Patriot | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| 2001 | A.I. Artificial Intelligence | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 2002 | Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones | |
| Minority Report | ||
| Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| Catch Me If You Can | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 2004 | Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| The Terminal | ||
| 2005 | Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith | |
| War of the Worlds | ||
| Memoirs of a Geisha | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| Munich | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 2008 | Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | |
| 2011 | The Adventures of Tintin | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| War Horse | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score | |
| 2012 | Lincoln | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| 2013 | The Book Thief | |
| 2015 | Star Wars: The Force Awakens | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| 2016 | The BFG | |
| 2017 | Star Wars: The Last Jedi | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| The Post | ||
| 2019 | Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| 2022 | The Fabelmans | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |
| 2023 | Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny | Nominated - Academy Award for Best Original Score |