Sound
John Williams
EN, IT, JA, DE cinema · 231 credits
Born
8 February 1932 (age 94)
Birthplace
Queens, New York City, New York, USA
Also known as John Towner Williams · Johnny Williams · John Williams Jr.
John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scoresin cinema history. He has a distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration. He is best known for his collaborations with Steven Spielberg and George Lucas and has received numerous accolades including 26 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards and four Golden Globe Awards. With 54 Academy Award nominations, he is the second-most nominated person, after Walt Disney, and is the oldest Oscar nominee in any category, at 91 years old. Williams's early work as a film composer includes Valley of the Dolls (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Images and The Cowboys (both 1972), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974). He has collaborated with Spielberg since The Sugarland Express (1974), composing music for all but five of his feature films. He received five Academy Awards for Best Score for Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Schindler's List (1993). Other memorable collaborations with Spielberg include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones franchise (1981–2023), Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and The Fabelmans (2022). He also scored Superman (1978), the first two Home Alone films (1990–1992), and the first three Harry Potter films (2001–2004). Williams has also composed numerous classical concertos and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments. He served as the Boston Pops' principal conductor from 1980 to 1993 and is its laureate conductor. Other works by Williams include theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games; NBC Sunday Night Football; "The Mission" theme (used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia); and the television series Lost in Space, Land of the Giants and Amazing Stories. Among other accolades, he has received the Kennedy Center Honor in 2004, the National Medal of the Arts in 2009 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016. He was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998, the Hollywood Bowl's Hall of Fame in 2000 and the American Classical Music Hall of Fame in 2004. He has composed the score for nine of the top 25 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office. In 2022, Williams was appointed an Honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II, "for services to film music". In 2005, the American Film Institute placed Williams's score to Star Wars first on its list AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores; his scores for Jaws and E.T. also made the list. The Library of Congress entered the Star Wars soundtrack into the National Recording Registry for being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant". Description above from the Wikipedia article John Williams, licensed under CC-BY-SA, full list of contributors on Wikipedia.
Known for
Filmography
Montage: Great Film Composers and The Piano
Montage: Great Film Composers and The Piano
Actor
Monty and the Movies
as Self (archive footage)
Disclosure Day
Original Music Composer
Superman
Music
The Cinema of John Williams (Indiana Jones, E.T., Star Wars and more)
Original Music Composer
OSN: Musiche dall'America con Gianna Fratta e Alessandro Taverna
Original Music Composer
Music by John Williams
as Self - Composer, Music
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny
Original Music Composer, Conductor, Orchestrator
Ennio
as Self
Williams: Violin Concerto No. 2 & Selected Film Themes
as Self - Conductor
Jurassic World Dominion
Main Title Theme Composer
Piano Cinéma
Original Music Composer
Jurassic World Camp Cretaceous: Hidden Adventure
Main Title Theme Composer
The Fabelmans
Original Music Composer
OSN: Il ballo al Cinema con John Axelrod
Original Music Composer
John Williams: Live in Vienna
as Self - Conductor, Music
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
as Self (archive footage)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker
as Oma Tres, Original Music Composer
Battle at Big Rock
Main Title Theme Composer
Leonard Bernstein Centennial Celebration at Tanglewood
as Self - Conductor
At the Jedi School
Compositor
At the Jedi School
Compositor
Spielberg
as Self
Star Wars: The Last Jedi
Original Music Composer
The Post
Original Music Composer
John Williams: The Seventh Symphony
as Self (archive footage)
Hoshino
Original Music Composer
The BFG
Original Music Composer
Star Wars: The Force Awakens
Original Music Composer
The Book Thief
Original Music Composer
Lincoln
Original Music Composer
Star Wars: The Clone Wars - Darth Maul Returns
Theme Song Performance
AFI's Master Class - The Art of Collaboration: Steven Spielberg and John Williams
as Self
The Adventures of Tintin
Original Music Composer
War Horse
Original Music Composer
LEGO Star Wars: The Padawan Menace
Original Music Composer
Music
as Self
LEGO Star Wars: Bombad Bounty
Main Title Theme Composer
Johnny Mercer: The Dream's on Me
as Self - Performer
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
Original Music Composer
Production Diary: Making of 'The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'
Original Music Composer
Superman II: The Richard Donner Cut
Original Music Composer
War of the Worlds
Original Music Composer, Conductor
Munich
Original Music Composer
Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith
Original Music Composer
Memoirs of a Geisha
Original Music Composer
Remember the Secret Policeman's Ball?
as Self (archive footage)
The Terminal
Original Music Composer
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Original Music Composer
Minority Report
Original Music Composer
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Original Music Composer
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
Original Music Composer
Catch Me If You Can
Original Music Composer
The Making of 'Close Encounters of the Third Kind'
as Self, Original Music Composer
A.I. Artificial Intelligence
Original Music Composer
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Original Music Composer
The Patriot
Original Music Composer
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Original Music Composer
Angela's Ashes
Original Music Composer
The Unfinished Journey
Original Music Composer
Saving Private Ryan
Original Music Composer, Conductor
Stepmom
Original Music Composer
The Lost World: Jurassic Park
Original Music Composer
Seven Years in Tibet
Original Music Composer
Amistad
Original Music Composer
Rosewood
Original Music Composer
Sleepers
Original Music Composer
Nixon
Original Music Composer
Sabrina
Original Music Composer, Songs
Jurassic Park
Original Music Composer
Schindler's List
Original Music Composer
Home Alone 2: Lost in New York
Original Music Composer
Far and Away
Original Music Composer
JFK
Original Music Composer
Hook
Original Music Composer, Songs
Home Alone
Original Music Composer
Presumed Innocent
Original Music Composer
Stanley & Iris
Original Music Composer
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
Original Music Composer
Born on the Fourth of July
Original Music Composer
Always
Original Music Composer
The Accidental Tourist
Original Music Composer
Empire of the Sun
Original Music Composer
The Witches of Eastwick
Original Music Composer, Conductor
SpaceCamp
Original Music Composer
Amazing Stories
Original Music Composer
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
Original Music Composer
The River
Original Music Composer
Return of the Jedi
Original Music Composer
E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial
Original Music Composer
Monsignor
Original Music Composer
Raiders of the Lost Ark
Original Music Composer
Heartbeeps
Original Music Composer
The Empire Strikes Back
Original Music Composer
Superman II
Music, Theme Song Performance
1941
Original Music Composer
Dracula
Original Music Composer
Jaws 2
Original Music Composer
The Fury
Original Music Composer
Superman
Original Music Composer
Star Wars
Original Music Composer
Close Encounters of the Third Kind
Original Music Composer
Black Sunday
Original Music Composer
Family Plot
Original Music Composer
Midway
Original Music Composer
The Missouri Breaks
Original Music Composer
Jaws
Original Music Composer, Conductor
The Eiger Sanction
Original Music Composer
The Sugarland Express
Original Music Composer, Conductor
Conrack
Original Music Composer
Earthquake
Original Music Composer
The Towering Inferno
Original Music Composer
The Long Goodbye
Original Music Composer
Tom Sawyer
Original Music Composer
The Man Who Loved Cat Dancing
Original Music Composer
Cinderella Liberty
Original Music Composer
The Paper Chase
Original Music Composer
The Poseidon Adventure
Original Music Composer
The Screaming Woman
Main Title Theme Composer, Original Music Composer
Pete 'n' Tillie
Original Music Composer
Images
Conductor, Orchestrator, Original Music Composer
The Cowboys
Original Music Composer
Fiddler on the Roof
Conductor, Orchestrator, Music Arranger, Original Music Composer
Jane Eyre
Original Music Composer
Story of a Woman
Original Music Composer
The Reivers
Original Music Composer
Goodbye, Mr. Chips
Original Music Composer, Conductor, Music Supervisor
Daddy's Gone A-Hunting
Original Music Composer
Heidi
Original Music Composer
Sergeant Ryker
Original Music Composer
Valley of the Dolls
Original Music Composer
A Guide for the Married Man
Original Music Composer
Ghostbreakers
Original Music Composer
Fitzwilly
Original Music Composer
How to Steal a Million
Original Music Composer
The Rare Breed
Original Music Composer
The Plainsman
Original Music Composer
Penelope
Original Music Composer, Songs
Not With My Wife, You Don't!
Original Music Composer
The Kathryn Reed Story
Original Music Composer
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home!
Original Music Composer, Conductor
None but the Brave
Original Music Composer
The Killers
Original Music Composer
Nightmare in Chicago
Original Music Composer
Gidget Goes to Rome
Original Music Composer
Flashing Spikes
Original Music Composer
Diamond Head
Original Music Composer
The Secret Ways
Original Music Composer
Bachelor Flat
Original Music Composer
The Guns of Navarone
Music Arranger
I Passed for White
Original Music Composer
Because They're Young
Original Music Composer
Some Like It Hot
Musician
Daddy-O
Original Music Composer