James Roy Horner (August 14, 1953 – June 22, 2015) was an American composer and conductor. Between 1978 and 2015, he worked on more than 160 film and television productions. He was known for combining choral and electronic music with traditional orchestral arrangements, and for using themes from Celtic music in his work.

Horner won two Academy Awards for his musical score for James Cameron’s Titanic (1997), which became the best-selling orchestral film soundtrack in history. He also composed the score for Avatar (2009), the highest-grossing film of all time. Other scores he wrote that were nominated for Academy Awards include 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). Other notable scores he composed 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 worked with many 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. He also worked with producers such as Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, David Kirschner, Brian Grazer, Jon Landau, and Lawrence Gordon, and songwriters including Will Jennings, Barry Mann, and Cynthia Weil. In addition to his two Academy Awards, Horner won six Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and was nominated for three BAFTA Awards.

Horner loved flying and was killed in a single-fatality plane crash while piloting 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 completed and released after his death.

Early life and education

Horner was born on August 14, 1953, in Los Angeles, California, to Jewish immigrant parents. His father, Harry Horner, was a set designer and art director who emigrated from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. His mother, Joan Ruth (née Frankel), was born to a Canadian family. His brother, Christopher, is a writer and documentary filmmaker.

Horner began playing the piano at the age of five. He also played the violin. He spent his early years in London, where he attended the Royal College of Music and studied with György Ligeti. He returned to America, where he attended Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona, and later received his bachelor’s degree in music from the University of Southern California. After earning a master’s degree, he started work on his doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he studied with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970s, he finished teaching a course in music theory at UCLA, then turned to film scoring.

Career

James Horner's first job as a film composer was working with Roger Corman, a B-movie director and producer. In 1979, he composed the music for The Lady in Red. He later worked on Humanoids from the Deep (1980) and Battle Beyond the Stars (1980). As his work became more well-known in Hollywood, he was invited to create music for larger and more important films.

His biggest opportunity came in 1982 when he was asked to compose the music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan. This film helped him become one of the most respected composers in Hollywood. Director Nicholas Meyer joked that Horner was hired because the studio could not afford the composer from the first Star Trek movie, Jerry Goldsmith. However, by the time Meyer returned to the Star Trek series for Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the studio could not afford Horner either.

In the 1980s, Horner composed music for many famous films, including 48 Hrs. (1982), Krull (1983), Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984), Commando (1985), Cocoon (1985), Aliens (1986), Captain EO (1986), batteries not included (1987), Willow (1988), Glory (1989), and Field of Dreams (1989). Cocoon was the first of many films he worked on with director Ron Howard.

In 1987, Horner received his first Academy Award nomination for his score to Aliens. That same year, he was also nominated for Best Original Song for Somewhere Out There, which he co-wrote with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for An American Tail.

Throughout the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Horner composed music for many family films, especially those made by Steven Spielberg’s company, Amblin Entertainment. These included An American Tail (1986), The Land Before Time (1988), The Rocketeer (1991), Sneakers (1992), Casper (1995), Jumanji (1995), Balto (1995), Mighty Joe Young (1998), and How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000).

In 1990, Horner created a new fanfare for Universal Pictures. This fanfare was first used in Back to the Future Part III.

In 1995, Horner composed music for six films, including Braveheart and Apollo 13, both of which received Academy Award nominations.

Horner’s most successful work came in 1997 with the music for Titanic, directed by James Cameron. At the 70th Academy Awards, Horner won the Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score. He also shared an Oscar for Best Original Song with Will Jennings for My Heart Will Go On. The film’s music and song also won three Grammy Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. Ten years earlier, Horner had said he would never work with Cameron again after the difficult experience of scoring Aliens, which he called "a nightmare."

After Titanic, Horner continued to compose for major films, including The Perfect Storm, A Beautiful Mind, Enemy at the Gates, The Mask of Zorro, The Legend of Zorro, House of Sand and Fog, and Bicentennial Man. He also worked on smaller films like Iris, Radio, and Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius. He received Academy Award nominations for A Beautiful Mind (2001) and House of Sand and Fog (2003), but lost both times to Howard Shore.

In 2006, Horner composed the theme music for the CBS Evening News, which was first used when anchor Katie Couric began hosting the show in 2006. He created different versions of the theme to match the tone of the news each night.

Horner worked with James Cameron again on Avatar (2009), which became the highest-grossing film in history. He spent over two years working on the film, calling it "the most difficult film I have worked on" and "the biggest job I have undertaken." Avatar earned Horner his tenth Academy Award nomination, as well as nominations for the Golden Globe, British Academy Film Award, and Grammy. He lost all these awards to Michael Giacchino for Up.

After Avatar, Horner composed the music for The Karate Kid (2010), replacing Atli Örvarsson. In 2011, he scored Cristiada (also known as For Greater Glory) and Black Gold. In 2012, he composed the music for The Amazing Spider-Man. Horner later said he did not return for the sequel because he disliked how the film compared to the first one, calling it "dreadful." Hans Zimmer replaced him for the sequel. A theme from The Amazing Spider-Man was later used in Spider-Man: No Way Home, composed by Michael Giacchino.

In 2015, after a three-year break, Horner composed the music for Wolf Totem, his fourth film with director Jean-Jacques Annaud. At the time of his death, Horner had completed the scores for Southpaw and The 33, though these films had not yet been released. He composed Southpaw for free because he loved the film.

In July 2015, it was discovered that Horner had also written the score for the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven, planning it as a surprise.

Horner’s music is also used in movie trailers. A scene from his score for Aliens called Bishop’s Countdown is the fifth most commonly used music cue in trailers.

Horner also composed the theme music for the Horsemen P-51 Aerobatic Team. This theme is played at the team’s airshow performances. He is featured in The Horsemen Cometh, a documentary about the

Musical "borrowing"

James Horner faced criticism for using parts of his old music and including short pieces from classical composers in his film scores. For example, his music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock included sections from Prokofiev’s Alexander Nevsky and Romeo and Juliet, respectively. Much of the music from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan was reused again in the 1983 film Krull. The action theme from Aliens was originally from a piece called Wolfen. The main title music for Aliens is nearly identical to a piece from Aram Khachaturian’s Gayane Ballet Suite (Adagio), which had already been used in 2001: A Space Odyssey and later appeared in Patriot Games and Clear and Present Danger.

The heroic theme in Willow was based on a melody from Robert Schumann’s Rhenish Symphony. The film Field of Dreams included music from Aaron Copland’s Rodeo ballet and his score for Our Town. In Patriot Games, Horner used a part of a theme from Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 5 in an action scene. Musical ideas from 48 Hrs. were reused in Commando, Red Heat, and Another 48 Hrs.. The final battle in Glory included music from Wagner and Orff.

Some critics believed this practice made Horner’s music seem less original. A 1997 article in Film Score Monthly noted that Horner was “skilled in adapting existing music into films with enough changes to avoid legal problems.”

Critics also pointed out similarities between the main theme of Braveheart and a song called Pai Longing from a 1991 Japanese anime series, 3×3 Eyes.

In one case, Horner’s use of music nearly led to a lawsuit. The main theme for Honey, I Shrunk the Kids (1989) included music from Nino Rota’s score for Amarcord (1973) and a piece by Raymond Scott called Powerhouse B (1937). Scott’s work was used without payment or credit, prompting his estate to demand legal action. Disney paid an unknown amount to settle the dispute and updated the film’s credits to properly acknowledge Scott.

Personal life

Horner was also a licensed private pilot and owned several small airplanes. His studio was filled with small automatons and objects that he bought and collected over many years. After his death, Horner's wife and daughter shared that he had been diagnosed with Asperger syndrome.

Death

On June 22, 2015, Horner died when his small plane, a Short Tucano with the number N206PZ, crashed into the Los Padres National Forest near Ventucopa, California. Horner was the only person in the plane when it took off after refueling at Camarillo Airport. Three days later, on June 25, medical examiners in Ventura County said the crash was an accident.

An investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) found that the main reason for the crash was Horner’s failure to keep the plane far enough from the ground during low-altitude flying. During the flight, Horner spoke with air traffic controllers, who gave him warnings while he flew over the Chumash Wilderness area. The NTSB talked to two people who saw the plane from their homes. One said the plane flew between 500 and 750 feet (150 and 230 meters) above the ground. Radar data showed the plane made several sharp turns at low altitudes, flew quickly through Quatal Canyon, and passed within less than 100 feet (30 meters) of mountain ridges.

In addition to Horner’s failure to stay clear of the ground, the NTSB found other important factors that contributed to the crash. One major factor was Horner’s use of prescription medicines for pain and headaches. Tests showed butalbital, codeine, and ethanol were in his body (the ethanol might have come from drinking or from activity after his death).

People who worked with Horner and others around the world honored him. Composers like Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Paul Williams, and Alan Menken, and directors Ron Howard and James Cameron expressed their respect. Horner was working on the Avatar movie series, and director James Cameron said, “There’s so much music he could have done. We were looking forward to our next project.” His assistant, Sylvia Patrycja, wrote on Facebook, “We have lost an amazing person with a huge heart and unbelievable talent [who] died doing what he loved.”

Many famous people, including Russell Crowe, Diane Warren, and Celine Dion, shared their sadness. Dion, who sang “My Heart Will Go On,” a song Horner composed, said she and her husband were “shaken by the tragic death” of their friend and “will always remember his kindness and great talent.” Leona Lewis, who recorded Horner’s song “I See You” for Avatar, said working with him “was one of the biggest moments of my life.” The last movies Horner composed scores for—Southpaw, The 33, and The Magnificent Seven—were dedicated to his memory, as was Hacksaw Ridge. Avatar: The Way of Water, which Horner was set to work on before his death, was also dedicated to his memory, along with actor Bill Paxton, who died in 2017 and appeared in films like Aliens and Titanic, which Horner also scored.

Legacy

James Horner's many papers and documents are kept safe and can be used by researchers at the UCLA Charles E. Young Research Library Special Collections and Archives. A film titled The World of James Horner – Hollywood in Vienna (2013), directed by Sandra Tomek, was made to honor James Horner.

Awards and nominations

Horner won two Academy Awards for Best Original Dramatic Score (Titanic) and Best Original Song ("My Heart Will Go On") in 1998. He was also nominated for eight additional Oscars. He received two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, six Grammy Awards, and was nominated for three British Academy Film Awards.

In October 2013, Horner was honored with the Max Steiner Award at the Hollywood in Vienna Gala. This award recognizes outstanding achievement in film music.

In 2005, the American Film Institute announced a list of the top 25 American film scores. Five of Horner’s scores were among 250 nominees, making him the most nominated composer who did not appear on the top 25 list.

• Field of Dreams (1989)
• Glory (1989)
• Apollo 13 (1995)
• Braveheart (1995)
• Titanic (1997)