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James Horner

James Horner

Sound
1953-08-14
Los Angeles, California, USA

Biography

James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953–June 22, 2015) was an American film composer and conductor. He worked on more than 160 film and television productions between 1978 and 2015. He was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements alongside traditional orchestrations and for his use of motifs associated with Celtic music. Horner won two Academy Awards for his musical composition to James Cameron's Titanic (1997), which became the best-selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time. He also wrote the score for the highest-grossing film of all time, Cameron's Avatar (2009). Horner's other Oscar-nominated scores were for Aliens (1986), An American Tail (1986), Field of Dreams (1989), Apollo 13 (1995), Braveheart (1995), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and House of Sand and Fog (2003). Horner's other notable scores include Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982), Willow (1988), The Land Before Time (1988), Glory (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Legends of the Fall (1994), Jumanji (1995), Casper (1995), Balto (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998), Deep Impact (1998), The Perfect Storm (2000), How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000), Troy (2004), The New World (2005), The Legend of Zorro (2005), Apocalypto (2006), The Karate Kid (2010), and The Amazing Spider-Man (2012). Horner collaborated on multiple projects with directors including James Cameron, Don Bluth, Ron Howard, Joe Johnston, Edward Zwick, Walter Hill, Mel Gibson, Vadim Perelman, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Nicholas Meyer, Wolfgang Petersen, Martin Campbell, Phil Nibbelink, and Simon Wells; producers including Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, David Kirschner, Brian Grazer, Jon Landau, and Lawrence Gordon; and songwriters including Will Jennings, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. Adding to his two Academy Awards wins, Horner also won six Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, and was nominated for three BAFTA Awards. Horner, who was an avid pilot, was killed in a single-fatality crash while flying his Short Tucano turboprop aircraft. He was 61 years old. The scores for his final three films, Southpaw (2015), The 33 (2015), and The Magnificent Seven (2016), were all completed and released posthumously. Description above from the Wikipedia article James Horner, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.

Known For & Full Filmography10 Titles

#1Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan

Movie - 1982, 2h 15m as Enterprise Crewman

7.4 / 10
ActionAdventureSci-Fi

The starship Enterprise and its crew is pulled back into action when old nemesis, Khan, steals a top secret device called Project Genesis.

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#2An Oral History of: The Name of the Rose

Movie - 2022, 2h 15m as Self (archive footage)

2.0 / 10

An oral history of the 1986 film adaptation of "The Name of the Rose", gathering together the memories of several members of the surviving cast/crew.

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#3Reflections on Titanic

Movie - 2012, 2h 15m as Self

7.2 / 10
Documentary

An enthralling and fast-paced four-part documentary feature that covers the making of one of the last major Hollywood epics; Titanic. Cast and crew speak on setting the sinking of the ship against a classic romance. The feature also examines casting and the young couple headlining the film, DiCaprio's and Winslet's on-set friendship and their differing acting styles, the expansive sets and filming locations, the authenticity of the recreated ship, James Cameron's work and dedication, and budgeting. And many more aspects of the film are overviewed.

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#4Avatar: Creating the World of Pandora

Movie - 2010, 2h 15m as Self

6.5 / 10
Documentary

The Making-of James Cameron's Avatar. It shows interesting parts of the work on the set.

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#5Hollywood in Vienna

Drama Series - 2011, 16 episodes as Self

8.0 / 10

Hollywood in Vienna is an annual film music gala hosted in the Vienna Concert Hall where the Max Steiner Film Music Achievement Award is presented.

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#6Superior Firepower: Making 'Aliens'

Movie - 2003, 2h 15m as Self

7.5 / 10
Documentary

This feature-length documentary, made especially for the 2003 Aliens (1986) DVD release, is incredibly informative with all its interviews with both the cast and crew, as well as behind the scenes footage filmed during the making of the film. Every possible element towards what went into making the movie is included here and gives fans an overload of information to fill their brains with.

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#7Unmasking Zorro

Movie - 2001, 2h 15m as Self

6.0 / 10
Documentary

A behind-the-scenes look at the making of the film The Mask of Zorro (1998), including a brief history of the iconic character.

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#8Hollywood in Vienna: The World of James Horner

Movie - 2013, 2h 15m as Self

8.5 / 10
Music

On the first anniversary of James Horner's tragic death, we celebrate the legendary composer's greatest film scores with this Deluxe Blu-ray concert. James called this 2013 concert the 'most special moment' of his life. David Newman conducts an orchestra and choir in performances of suites from Titanic, Avatar, A Beautiful Mind, Braveheart and more! The Blu-ray also features a 75-minute symposium with James Horner discussing his creative process and some of his most loved scores.

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#9Alba Gu Brath! The Making of 'Braveheart'

Movie - 2007, 2h 15m as Self

5.8 / 10
Documentary

A three-part retrospective with notes from Gibson, Wallace, producers Bruce Davey and Alan Ladd, Jr., unit manager Kevin de la Noy, cinematographer John Toll, and 2nd unit director/stunt coordinator Mic Rodgers. The show looks at the project's development from the Gibson/studio point of view, Gibson's work as director and the challenges of doing "double duty" as an actor, editing and music, sets and locations, logistics, stunts and action scenes, and various other production concerns.

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#10Uncovering Wolfen

Movie - 2015, 2h 15m as Self (archive footage)

8.8 / 10
Documentary

After the huge financial and cultural success of WOODSTOCK (1970), filmmaker and political activist Michael Wadleigh spent many years in Hollywood writing scripts that were never produced. However, WOLFEN (1981), his only other major motion picture, was. After that he would never complete another feature film again. This is the story of that film.

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