John Williams

John Williams is an American score composer, conductor and pianist from Flushing, United States, born in 1932. He is one of at least several artists with this name, but the best-known is John Towner Williams, whose career spans more than six decades.

Film and television music

Williams is known for a large body of film music that includes scores for the Star Wars series, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, the Indiana Jones series, the first two Home Alone films, Hook, the first two Jurassic Park films, Schindler's List and the first three Harry Potter films. His score for Star Wars is selected by the American Film Institute as the greatest American film score of all time, and the soundtrack is preserved in the National Recording Registry as culturally, historically or aesthetically significant.

He also writes theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games, NBC Sunday Night Football, NBC News' “The Mission” theme, Seven News in Australia, and television series including Lost in Space, Land of the Giants and the first season of Gilligan's Island.

Style and collaborators

His sound combines romanticism, impressionism and atonal writing with complex orchestration. The classical music critic Marcus Paus describes his approach as one that places dissonance and avant-garde techniques within a broader tonal framework. Williams is associated with director Steven Spielberg from 1974 onwards and composes music for all but three of Spielberg's feature films.

Concert works and conducting

Alongside screen music, Williams composes concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He serves as principal conductor of the Boston Pops from 1980 to 1993 and is now the orchestra's laureate conductor.

Awards and recognition

Williams wins 24 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, five Academy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. He receives 51 Academy Award nominations, making him the second most-nominated individual after Walt Disney. He is inducted into the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000, receives Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. Eight of the top 20 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office, adjusted for inflation, include scores by Williams.

Background

John Towner Williams is born in Floral Park, New York, in 1932 to Esther Towner and Johnny Williams, a jazz percussionist who plays with the Raymond Scott Quintet. He marries actress and singer Barbara Ruick in 1956; they have three children, Jennifer, Mark Towner Williams and Joseph, who becomes the lead singer of Toto. After Ruick's death in 1974, he marries photographer Samantha Winslow in 1980.