John Williams Biography
John Towner Williams KBE (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer, conductor, and pianist. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable and critically acclaimed film scores in cinema history. Williams has won 25 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With 53 Academy Award nominations, he is the second most-nominated individual, after Walt Disney. His compositions are considered the epitome of film music, and he is considered among the greatest composers in the history of cinema, as well as all time.Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974, composing music for all but five of his feature films, and George Lucas, with whom he has worked on both of his main franchises. His early work as a film composer includes The Killers (1964), How to Steal a Million (1966), Valley of the Dolls (1967), and Goodbye Mr. Chips (1969). He has received five Academy Awards for Best Original Score for his work on Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), E.T.: The Extra Terrestrial (1982), Star Wars (1977), and Schindler's List (1993). Williams has composed for many popular films including the Star Wars saga, Superman, the first two Home Alone films, the Indiana Jones films, the first two Jurassic Park films, and the first three Harry Potter films. Other memorable film scores from his collaboration with Spielberg include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), Hook (1991), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and The Fabelmans (2022).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 Ne...