History Music / JohnWilliams

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932 in UsefulNotes/NewYorkCity) is one of the world's most famous and prolific movie music composers. Professionally active for six decades, he has been nominated for a whopping 52 UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s (winning five), six Emmy nominations (winning three including one for the 1968 MadeForTVMovie version of ''Heidi'' of "Heidi Game" infamy), 22 Golden Globes (winning four) and 59 Grammys (winning twenty). Only Creator/WaltDisney has been nominated for more Oscars, and Williams currently holds the record for most nominated living individual.

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is one of the world's most famous and prolific movie music composers. Professionally active for six decades, he has been nominated for a whopping 52 UsefulNotes/{{Academy Award}}s (winning five), six Emmy nominations (winning three including one for the 1968 MadeForTVMovie version of ''Heidi'' of "Heidi Game" infamy), 22 Golden Globes (winning four) and 59 Grammys (winning twenty). Only Creator/WaltDisney has been nominated for more Oscars, and Williams currently holds the record for most nominated living individual.

* {{Fanfare}}: He's so good, he's gotten raves from the directors just from watching him conduct. Creator/RichardDonner even admitted he screwed up a recording take for ''Film/{{Superman}}'' by running into the room shouting how great it was.

* ''Film/TheKillers'' (1964)

** ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds'' (2005)

* ''[[Film/Midway1976 Midway]]'' (1976)
* ''Literature/BlackSunday'' (1977)

* DeathlyDiesIrae: Very common in his work. Multiple ''Franchise/StarWars'' films, ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'', ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'', ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', ''Film/JurassicPark'', ''Film/HomeAlone'', ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' and ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds'' all feature the famous four notes of ''dies irae'' during suspenseful or dramatic sequences.

* NeverTrustATitle: A lot of his score for ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds'' was moved to different scenes than it was originally composed for. As a result, many of the track titles don't make sense. A standout example is "The Separation of the Family", which plays in the film when the family is ''reunited'' at the end.

Unless you're hearing impaired or haven't seen a movie in the last 30 years (or maybe not even then), you'll have certainly heard one of Williams' tunes. Most of his themes have become iconic in their own right, such as the opening {{fanfare}} of ''Franchise/StarWars'', the famous string sting from ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' or the theme for ''Franchise/IndianaJones''. Williams has long been the go-to composer for Creator/StevenSpielberg's films (he even wrote the music for the Amblin and Creator/{{Dreamworks}} logos). Likewise, his music for ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' gave the {{Superhero}} film genre a rarely equaled feel of heroic majesty.

* CreatorCameo: During ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker'', Williams can be briefly seen surrounded by objects referencing all 51 (at the time of filming the scene) movie scores he had composed that were nominated for an Academy Award. His character, Oma Tres dies as Kijimi blows up.

* ''Film/{{Superman}}'' (1978) (he also wrote themes for ''Film/SupermanIVTheQuestForPeace'').
* ''[[Film/Dracula1979 Dracula]]'' (1979)

* ''Series/AmazingStories'' (1985-87) He also scored the episodes "[[Recap/AmazingStories1985S1E1GhostTrain GhostTrain]]" and "[[Recap/AmazingStories1985S1E5TheMission The Mission]]"

* Starting in 2001, the first three ''Film/HarryPotter'' films (technically William Ross adapted the second from Williams's music, as he was busy scoring two Spielberg movies that year), although the main themes he composed are still used in the later films.

** ''Film/NineteenFortyOne'' (1979)

* ''Literature/ValleyOfTheDolls'' (1967): His first Academy Award nominated work.

Early in his career, Williams worked for producer Creator/IrwinAllen (under the name "''Johnny'' Williams"), providing the themes (and pilot scores) for Allen's TV series ''Series/LostInSpace'', ''Series/TheTimeTunnel'' and ''Series/LandOfTheGiants'', and such disaster films as ''Film/ThePoseidonAdventure'' and ''Film/TheToweringInferno''. Williams himself credits much of his success to the collegial relationships he developed with his fellow musicians during his own stint in a studio orchestra. He also scored the pilot for ''Series/GilligansIsland'' (but he didn't write the theme song).

Not to be confused with John William'''''son''''' who is a very [[AwesomeAussie Australian]] singer-songwriter. Nor with the acclaimed classical ''guitarist'' [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_(guitarist) John Williams]]. Nor with any of the dozens of other [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Williams_(disambiguation) eminent historical John Williamses]]. He is however related to Joseph Williams, the singer from Music/{{Toto}} and Simba's singing voice in ''WesternAnimation/TheLionKing1994''-- that would be his son.

He is also [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lk5_OSsawz4 the man]].
The podcast ''The Baton: A John Williams Journey'' is thoroughly recommended.

* ''Film/TheSugarlandExpress'' (1974): Creator/StevenSpielberg's first feature film and Williams' first collaboration with Spielberg. See AssociatedComposer below. His other Spielberg scores:

* ''Film/HomeAlone'' (1990); ''Film/HomeAlone2LostInNewYork'' (1992)

----

Born in New York to a musical family (his father was a {{jazz}} drummer), he got his start as a studio pianist in Los Angeles, performing on film scores by composers such as Music/JerryGoldsmith (''Studs Lonigan''; ''City of Fear''), Music/ElmerBernstein (''Film/SweetSmellOfSuccess''; ''God's Little Acre''; ''Staccato''; ''[[Film/TheMagnificentSeven1960 The Magnificent Seven]]''; ''Literature/ToKillAMockingbird''), Music/HenryMancini (he actually played the well-recognized opening riff to the ''Series/PeterGunn'' theme; ''Series/MrLucky''; ''Film/DaysOfWineAndRoses''; ''Film/{{Charade}}''), Music/AlfredNewman (''Theatre/SouthPacific''), and Jerome Moross (''Film/TheBigCountry'').

Williams' scores make extremely liberal use of {{Leitmotif}}--practically every major character and concept has its own musical motif woven into the score. Williams is also fond of the {{Fanfare}}. Despite these stylistic preferences, he seems willing to experiment with every movie, adding different instruments and techniques with each new film. (For example, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vDdFM6U9-eQ one piece]] of the ''Film/AttackOfTheClones'' score uses an electric guitar.) When a Williams composition is playing, you will generally be in for a good movie. If the movie's not good, well, [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic the music]] [[SugarWiki/RuleOfSeanConnery certainly]] [[AwesomeMusic/JohnWilliams will be]].

** The ''Franchise/IndianaJones'' films.

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Starting in 1977 he scored the all of the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy, with well-known pieces like "Main Title" (the opening {{fanfare}}), "[[BootstrappedTheme Luke's Theme]]", "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" and "Duel of The Fates". He won an Academy Award for ''Film/ANewHope''. He returned to score ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', ''Film/TheLastJedi'', and ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker''. The latter has been confirmed to be [[GrandFinale his very last for the franchise]]. He also composed the theme "The Adventures of Han" for ''Film/{{Solo}}'' (the rest of the movie was scored by John Powell) and the ''Ride/StarWarsGalaxysEdge'' Symphonic Suite.

** ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfTintin'' (2011)

Unless you're hearing impaired or haven't seen a movie in the last 30 years (or even if you haven't), you'll have certainly heard one of Williams' tunes. Most of his themes have become iconic in their own right, such as the opening {{fanfare}} of ''Franchise/StarWars'', the famous string sting from ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' or the theme for ''Franchise/IndianaJones''. Williams has long been the go-to composer for Creator/StevenSpielberg's films (he even wrote the music for the Amblin and Creator/{{Dreamworks}} logos). Likewise, his music for ''Film/SupermanTheMovie'' gave the {{Superhero}} film genre a rarely equaled feel of heroic majesty.

* AssociatedComposer: Famously, Williams has scored almost all the films of Creator/StevenSpielberg. The only exceptions are ''Film/BridgeOfSpies'', due to a health issue, ''Film/TheColorPurple'', which they mutually agreed would be better served with music by Music/QuincyJones, and ''[[Film/ReadyPlayerOne2018 Ready Player One]]'', due to a scheduling conflict. He's also worked on multiple projects with Creator/GeorgeLucas, Creator/ChrisColumbus, Creator/IrwinAllen, Creator/OliverStone, Creator/RobertAltman and Creator/MarkRydell.

* ''Film/{{Penelope|1966}}''

* ''Franchise/StarWars'': Starting in 1977 he scored the all of the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy, with well-known pieces like "Main Title" (the opening {{fanfare}}), "[[BootstrappedTheme Luke's Theme]]", "The Imperial March (Darth Vader's Theme)" and "Duel of The Fates". He won an Academy Award for ''Film/ANewHope''. He returned to score ''Film/TheForceAwakens'', ''Film/TheLastJedi'', and ''Film/TheRiseOfSkywalker''. The latter has been confirmed to be [[GrandFinale his very last for the franchise]]. He also composed the theme "The Adventures of Han" for ''Film/{{Solo}}'', the rest of which was scored by John Powell.

Interestingly, many fans of ClassicalMusic actually hold Williams in rather low regard, as '''many''' elements of his compositions (including some of his most well-known themes and motifs) are borrowed from older pieces of music. Though even they admit he's less guilty of this [[Music/JamesHorner than others]]. For most listeners this is one of his strengths; in the words of the founding editor of ''Film Score Monthly'' Lukas Kendall (whose all-time favorite score is ''The Empire Strikes Back''): "His themes sound inevitable. They sound like they fell out of his sleeves; they sound like they've always existed. And it's extraordinary how you get just two notes for ''Film/{{Jaws}}'' or five notes for ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'' and have them feel like they've always existed."

In addition to his film scores, Williams has composed music for four UsefulNotes/OlympicGames, ''The Mission'' suite for the ''NBC Nightly News'' (Also used by Seven News in Australia) and the inauguration of President UsefulNotes/BarackObama, among many others. He also conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra from 1980-1993 and remains Director Laureate to this day.

* DeathlyDiesIrae: Very common in his work. Multiple ''Franchise/StarWars'' films, ''Film/CloseEncountersOfTheThirdKind'', ''Film/{{Superman|1978}}'', ''Film/{{Jaws}}'', ''Film/JurassicPark'', ''Film/HomeAlone'', ''Film/HarryPotterAndTheChamberOfSecrets'' and ''Film/WarOfTheWorlds'' all feature the famous four notes of ''dies irae'' during suspenseful or dramatic sequences.