One of the most well-known composers of the 20th and 21st century, nominated for the Oscars 50 times (the most Oscar-nominated man alive) and winning the prize 5 times. He has also been nominated for 6 Emmy Awards, winning 3 times.
Born in New York, he started taking piano lessons since very young, then enrolled into the military after school and after three years he returned to New York City, where he worked as a jazz pianist and studied at the Juilliard School. His dream being to become a concert pianist, he confessed in an interview: "there were [Piano] players like John Browning and Van Cliburn around the place, who were also students of Rosina's [Rosina Lhevinne, his famed teacher], and I thought to myself, 'If that's the competition, I think I'd better be a composer". He then moved to Los Angeles to work in the film and television industry where he started off as a movie studio musician. His composing career took off in the 1970s with his first Oscar nomination for the music in the film "Valley of the Dolls"(1967) and his first Oscar win for the film "Fiddler On the Roof" (1971). He has created some of the most iconic and memorable theme tunes of all times by scoring more than 100 films, including "Schindler’s List", "Star Wars" films, "Harry Potter" films, "Jurassic Park", "Indiana Jones", "Saving Private Ryan", "Catch Me If You Can", "E.T.", "Jaws", "Superman-The Movie". He also brought back into vogue symphonic film scores, after synthesisers had become a norm. Apart from film music, he composed music for television, including some of the NBC network's news programs, concert pieces for symphony orchestras and music themes for several Olympic games.
In contrast to modern composers who use computer to create their music, John Williams uses pencil and paper and sits at a piano. A courtly, soft voiced and modest man, he has said: "I don't make a particular distinction between 'high art' and 'low art'. Music is there for everybody. It's a river we can all put our cups into and drink it and be sustained by it". His music is "lingering in people's memories" according to an expression he has used and will be staying with us and enjoying us for a long time.
