James Horner

Bio:
James Horner (born James Roy Horner on August 14, 1953 in Los Angeles, California) was an award-winning American music composer, conductor and orchestrator of film scores. James started playing piano at age five. He spent his early years in London, attending the Royal College of Music. James enrolled at University of Southern California. He graduated with a bachelor’s in music and pursued his doctorate at UCLA. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970’s, James scored his first major film with 1979’s The Lady In Red. After scoring his first composer credit for Roger Corman’s Battle Beyond The Stars, James’s career began to pick up until his breakthrough in 1982: scoring Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. James scored such classic 1980s movies like 48 Hrs, Commando, Aliens and Willow. Aliens scored James his first Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score. He would be nominated a total of 10 times, willing at the 70 th Academy Awards in 1998. James won the Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score for the movie, Titanic. He also won for Best Original Song for “My Heart Will Go On,” which he co-wrote (and was famously performed by Celine Dion.) James’s more famous scores include that for Braveheart, Avatar, Jumanji and A Beautiful Mind. On June 22, 2015, James was reportedly killed when his turboprop aircraft crashed into the Los Padres National Forest in southern California. He was the sole occupant on the plane. 

Best Known For:
James Horner was best known as an award-winning composer, creating scores to movies Titanic, Avatar and Braveheart.

Personal Life:
He is the son of director, Harry Horner, and brother of film production worker, Christopher Horner.