Happy Birthday John Williams! Legendary Star Wars Composer Turns 86 Today
Happy birthday to one of the all-time greats – the legendary composer John Williams turns 86 years old today!
Not only has Williams composed some of the most well-known movie scores of all time, he also made Oscar history last month when he was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Music Score for The Last Jedi. Williams, who has scored all eight of the main Star Wars movies, received his 51st Oscar nomination for The Last Jedi. This latest accolade means Williams has received more nominations than anyone else alive today. (The late Walt Disney, with 59 nominations, is the only other person who has received more Academy Award nominations.)
Williams has received five Academy Award nominations for his Star Wars’ scores (Star Wars: A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, Return of the Jedi, The Force Awakens, and The Last Jedi), and he won the Best Score Academy Award for the original Star Wars. He also won Academy Awards for Jaws, Fiddler on the Roof, E.T., and Schindler’s List, and his other world-famous scores include Raiders of the Lost Ark, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, and Jurassic Park. Williams is currently writing a theme for Solo: A Star Wars Story and has agreed to score Star Wars Episode IX.
Williams’ stellar work on the Star Wars franchise is a big part of what gave the franchise its identity and has come to influence dozens of composers in the years that have followed. Here’s to Williams continuing to break new ground for musical composition and for his future endeavors to help define the Star Wars landscape for years to come!
Grant has been a fan of Star Wars for as long as he can remember, having seen every movie on the big screen. When he’s not hard at work with his college studies, he keeps himself busy by reporting on all kinds of Star Wars news for SWNN and general movie news on the sister site, Movie News Net. He served as a frequent commentator on SWNN’s The Resistance Broadcast.
Looked at the article’s picture – my heart sank.
Read the article’s title -Whew.
Happy Birthday Maestro Williams.
Here’s to 86 more.
Me too. My first thought was… Oh no!
Mortality sucks. None of us asked for this! 😛
Yay, Happy Birthday, Maestro. without the music u created there will be no star wars as we know it today.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uBxMPqxJGqI
Happy Bday to this modern genius. To me SW, was the work of many talented people but 3 key players: Lucas, McQuarrie and Williams.
He deserves a lifetime achievement Oscar. Hopefully Spielberg and Lucas will lobby for this.
Definitely, the man is really one of a kind!
Happy Birthday to Williams, one of my absolutely biggest inspirations as a composer myself.
John Williams equals Movie Magic! What an incredible body of work…. and I remember his music from long ago when he was Johnny Williams and he did the themes for such classic TV shows as “Land of the Giants” and “Lost in Space” before he started doing the music for movies like “The Poseidon Adventure” and “The Towering Inferno.” Then along came “Jaws” and “Star Wars” and wow…. just won incredible score after another. Happy Birthday, Mr. Williams!
Lucas called him the “secret sauce” of Star Wars. I’d say that’s pretty accurate.
Star Wars and every other movie he’s done would not be the same without him. I love his Harry Potter music too. Happy birthday John Williams u damn musical genius! 🙂
Sure, fans are divided these days, but when it comes to John Williams, there’s no arguing. Forever grateful for his contributions to the history of film.
Happy birthday, John. ^_^
I thought he was in his 90’s by now.
Happy Birthday, Mr. Williams. Many happy returns.
We should all be thankful he has been so good for so long. To many more years Johnny….you have brought joy into our hearts while watching our favorite films….coincidence????