John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. Over 70 years, he has created many of the most famous film scores in history. His music mixes romanticism, impressionism, and atonal music with detailed orchestration. He is best known for working with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg. He has received many awards, including 27 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 in the award's history, after Walt Disney. He is also the oldest person ever nominated for an Academy Award, receiving one at age 91.

Williams began his film career with movies like None but the Brave (1965), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Images, The Cowboys (both 1972), The Long Goodbye (1973), and The Towering Inferno (1974). He worked with Spielberg starting in 1974, creating music for most of Spielberg’s films, except five. He won five Academy Awards for Best Score or Best Score Adaptation for Fiddler on the Roof (1971; adapted from Jerry Bock’s original music), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Schindler’s List (1993). Other films he worked on with Spielberg include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones series (1981–2023), Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and The Fabelmans (2022). He also composed music for Superman (1978) and two of its sequels, the first two Home Alone films (1990–1992), and the first three Harry Potter films (2001–2004).

Williams has also worked with directors such as William Wyler, Clint Eastwood, Alfred Hitchcock, Brian De Palma, John Badham, George Miller, Oliver Stone, Chris Columbus, Ron Howard, Barry Levinson, John Singleton, Alan Parker, Alfonso Cuarón, and Rob Marshall. He has written many classical concertos and other pieces for orchestras and solo musicians. He was the principal conductor of the Boston Pops from 1980 to 1993 and is now its laureate conductor. Other works include the theme music for the 1984 Summer Olympics, NBC Sunday Night Football, "The Mission" theme (used by NBC News and Seven News in Australia), PBS’s Great Performances, and the TV series Lost in Space, Land of the Giants, and Amazing Stories.

Williams 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 scores for nine of the top 25 highest-grossing films in the U.S. In 2022, he was awarded an honorary knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his contributions to film music. In 2005, the American Film Institute ranked Star Wars as the greatest film score of all time; Jaws and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial also made the list. The Library of Congress added the Star Wars soundtrack to the National Recording Registry because it is "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."

Early life and education

John Towner Williams was born on February 8, 1932, in Queens, New York City, to Esther (née Towner) and Johnny Williams, a jazz drummer and percussionist who played with the Raymond Scott Quintet. He has an older sister named Joan and two younger brothers, Jerry and Don, who sometimes play on his film scores. Williams described his family background: "My father was from Maine, and we were very close. My mother was from Boston. My father's parents owned a department store in Bangor, Maine, and my mother's father was a cabinetmaker." John Williams senior worked with Bernard Herrmann, and his son sometimes joined him during practice sessions. Like his father, he was known as Johnny Williams during his youth but later used the name John Williams.

In 1948, the Williams family moved to Los Angeles. John attended North Hollywood High School and graduated in 1950. He studied at the University of California, Los Angeles, and took private composition lessons from the Italian composer Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. Williams also enrolled at Los Angeles City College for one semester to play in the school's studio jazz band.

In 1951, Williams joined the U.S. Air Force, where he played the piano and bass, and conducted and arranged music for the U.S. Air Force Band. In March 1952, he was sent to the Northeast Air Command 596th Air Force Band and stationed at Pepperrell Air Force Base in St. John's, Newfoundland. During his service, he also took music courses at the University of Arizona.

In 1955, after leaving the Air Force, Williams moved to New York City to study piano with Rosina Lhévinne at Juilliard. He did not enroll in classes or graduate from the school but took private lessons with Lhévinne in her practice room on campus. He originally planned to become a concert pianist but changed his focus to composition after hearing pianists like John Browning and Van Cliburn perform. He said he "could write better than [he] could play." While studying, Williams worked as a pianist in many of the city's jazz clubs.

Career

After studying at the Juilliard School of Music and the Eastman School of Music, Williams returned to Los Angeles. There, he began working as a music arranger at film studios. During this time, he worked with composers such as Franz Waxman, Bernard Herrmann, and Alfred Newman, as well as fellow music arrangers Conrad Salinger and Bob Franklyn.

Williams also worked as a studio pianist and session musician, playing music written by Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein, and Henry Mancini. One of his first jobs was working under Alfred Newman in an uncredited role for the film Carousel (1956), which happened to star his future wife, Barbara Ruick.

With Henry Mancini, Williams recorded the scores for Peter Gunn (1959), Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), Days of Wine and Roses (1962), and Charade (1963). He also played the piano part of the guitar-piano repeating pattern in the Peter Gunn title theme. With Elmer Bernstein, he performed the scores for Sweet Smell of Success (1957) and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Williams also played piano for the scores of The Apartment (1960), West Side Story (1961), and The Great Race (1966).

He released several jazz music albums using the name Johnny Williams, including Jazz Beginnings, World on a String, and The John Towner Touch. Williams also worked as a music arranger and bandleader for popular music albums with Ray Vasquez and Frankie Laine.

In 1952, Williams wrote his first film composition while stationed at Pepperrell Air Force Base for You Are Welcome, a promotional film for the Province of Newfoundland tourist office. His first feature film composition was for Daddy-O (1958), followed by Because They're Young (1960). He also wrote music for television shows such as Bachelor Father (1957–59), Kraft Suspense Theatre (1963–65), Lost in Space (1965–68), The Time Tunnel (1966–67), and Land of the Giants (1968–70). The last three were created by producer Irwin Allen. He also worked on episodes of M Squad (1957–60) and Checkmate (1960–62), as well as the pilot episode of Gilligan's Island (1964–67).

The American-Japanese anti-war film None but the Brave (1965) marked the start of Williams’ full shift from television to major Hollywood film composing. A Variety reviewer said his score provided "excellent background." The film was also Williams’ first collaboration with Frank Sinatra, who directed and starred in it. Later, Williams conducted music for Sinatra at events such as a Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center gala.

Williams called William Wyler’s How to Steal a Million (1966) "the first film [he] ever did for a major, super-talent director." He received his first Academy Award nomination for the score of Valley of the Dolls (1967) and was nominated again for Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969). His first Oscar was for Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song Score for Fiddler on the Roof (1971). He scored the psychological thriller Images (1972) and the neo-noir film The Long Goodbye (1973). Pauline Kael wrote that Williams’ music for The Long Goodbye showed how adaptable a theme can be. Director Robert Altman, known for giving actors freedom, told Williams to "do whatever you want. Do something you haven’t done before."

Williams became more well-known in the early 1970s for his work on disaster films by Irwin Allen, such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972), The Towering Inferno (1974), and Earthquake (1974). Williams said his score for Images was a favorite, noting it used many musical effects. He also said his scores for The Reivers (1969) and The Cowboys (1972) helped shape his career.

Williams’ scores for The Reivers and The Cowboys impressed a young Steven Spielberg, who was preparing to direct his first film, The Sugarland Express (1974). Spielberg asked Williams to work with him. Williams recalled meeting Spielberg, a teenager who knew a lot about film music. They later worked together on Jaws (1975). Spielberg used Williams’ theme from Images as a temporary track while editing Jaws. When Williams played his main theme for Jaws, based on two repeating notes, Spielberg thought it was a joke. Williams explained that the simple theme was the best choice. The score earned Williams his second Academy Award, his first for Best Original Score. The two-note repeating pattern became a symbol of danger. It was inspired by Ravel’s La valse; the score also included music from Debussy’s La mer and Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring.

Spielberg and Williams worked together for two years on Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). They created a five-note musical theme used as a communication signal for the film’s aliens. The theme appeared both in the score and in the story. Williams said the final two notes of the theme surprised him because the first three notes were already resolved.

Spielberg chose Williams to score 1941 (1979) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981). For the latter, Williams wrote "The Raiders March" for the hero, Indiana Jones, and separate themes for the Ark of the Covenant, Jones’s love interest, and the Nazi villains. Additional themes were used in later Indiana Jones films, including Temple of Doom (1984), Last Crusade (1989), Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008), and Dial of Destiny (2023). Spielberg said Williams’ music helped Indiana Jones know when to run, duck, or act

Personal life

In 1956, Williams married Barbara Ruick, an American actress and singer. They stayed married until she passed away in 1974. The couple had three children: Jennifer "Jenny" Williams Gruska (born 1956), Mark Towner Williams (born 1958), and Joseph Williams (born 1960). Joseph is best known as the main singer of Toto. Through his daughter Jennifer, Williams has two grandchildren: Barbara Gruska and Ethan Gruska, who are members of the duo band The Belle Brigade.

In 1980, Williams married Samantha Winslow, a photographer.

Williams currently lives in the Holmby Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California.

Awards, recognition and legacy

John Williams is considered one of the most important film composers in history. His work has influenced other composers in film, popular, and classical music. Norwegian composer Marcus Paus says that Williams’ ability to use complex musical ideas within a clear musical structure makes him one of the greatest composers of any time. His film music also shows the influence of other composers, such as Holst, Stravinsky, Korngold, and others. These influences are usually seen as natural, as one composer can affect another. The Boston Globe named Williams "the most successful composer of film music in the history of the medium."

Williams has been nominated for 54 Academy Awards, winning five; six Emmy Awards, winning three; 25 Golden Globe Awards, winning four; 77 Grammy Awards, winning 26; and has received seven British Academy Film Awards. With 54 Oscar nominations, Williams holds the record for the most Oscar nominations for a living person and is the second most nominated person in Academy Awards history, after Walt Disney’s 59. Williams is the only person ever nominated for an Academy Award in seven different decades (the 1960s, 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s, 2010s, and 2020s). He is also the oldest person, at age 91, ever to be nominated for an Academy Award. Forty-eight of Williams’ Oscar nominations are for Best Original Score, and five are for Best Original Song. He won four Oscars for Best Original Score (Jaws, Star Wars, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Schindler’s List) and one for Best Scoring: Adaptation and Original Song (Fiddler on the Roof).

Williams was the subject of an hour-long BBC documentary in 1980 and appeared in a 20/20 report in 1983. He has received academic honors, including an Honorary Doctorate of Music from Berklee College of Music in 1980, as well as Honorary Doctor of Music degrees from Boston College in 1993, Harvard University in 2017, and the University of Pennsylvania in 2021. Williams was made an honorary brother of Kappa Kappa Psi at Boston University in 1993, as he was about to retire from the Boston Pops. Since 1988, Williams has been honored with 15 Sammy Film Music Awards, the longest-running awards for film music recordings. In 2000, Williams received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.

Williams was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998. He has also been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall of Fame and the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame. Williams was honored with the annual Richard Kirk award at the 1999 BMI Film and TV Awards for his contributions to film and television music. In 2004, he received a Kennedy Center Honor. He won a Classic Brit Award in 2005 for his soundtrack work from the previous year. Williams has won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for scores of Star Wars, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Superman, The Empire Strikes Back, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Angela’s Ashes, Munich, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and The Book Thief. The competition includes not only film score composers but also composers of instrumental music from any genre, such as classical symphonies and chamber music.

In 2003, the International Olympic Committee gave Williams its highest individual honor, the Olympic Order. In 2009, Williams received the National Medal of Arts in the White House for his achievements in symphonic music for films and for "defining and inspiring modern movie-going for decades." In 2012, Williams received the Brit Award for Outstanding Contribution to Music. In 2013, he was presented with the Ken Burns Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2016, Williams was made a Chevalier De L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Government of France. In 2018, the performing rights organization Broadcast Music, Inc. established The John Williams Award, of which Williams became the first recipient. That same year, Williams received the Grammy Trustees Award, a Special Merit Award for contributions to the field of recording beyond performance. He also received a President’s Medal from The Juilliard School and announced during the ceremony that he intended to give his entire library of concert and film music scores, as well as his sketchbooks, to the college.

In 2020, Williams won the Grammy Award for "Best Instrumental Composition" for Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge Symphonic Suite and received his 52nd Oscar nomination for "Best Original Score" at the 92nd Academy Awards for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. In 2020, Williams received the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society and the Princess of Asturias Award for the Arts (shared with Ennio Morricone). In 2022, Williams was awarded an honorary knighthood (KBE) by Queen Elizabeth II "for services to film music," one of the final two honorary knighthoods awarded during the Queen’s seventy-year reign. In 2024, Williams was inducted into the American Academy of Arts and Letters (with Terence Blanchard) and received the Disney Legends award at the Honda Center in August of the same year.

Concert works

• 1969: Concerto for Flute and Orchestra
• 1974: Violin Concerto No. 1
• 1985: Concerto for Tuba and Orchestra
• 1991: Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra
• 1993: Concerto for Bassoon and Orchestra, The Five Sacred Trees
• 1994: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra
• 1996: Concerto for Trumpet and Orchestra
• 1997: Elegy for Cello and Orchestra
• 2000: TreeSong for Violin and Orchestra
• 2002: Heartwood: Lyric Sketches for Cello and Orchestra
• 2002: Escapades for Alto Saxophone and Orchestra (adapted from the film score of Catch Me If You Can)
• 2003: Concerto for Horn and Orchestra
• 2009: Concerto for Viola and Orchestra
• 2009: On Willows and Birches, for Harp and Orchestra
• 2011: Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra
• 2014: Prelude and Scherzo for Piano and Orchestra
• 2017: Markings for Violin, Strings and Harp
• 2018: Highwood's Ghost, An Encounter for Cello, Harp and Orchestra
• 2021: Violin Concerto No. 2
• 2025: Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

• 1965: Prelude and Fugue (recorded on Stan Kenton Conducts the Los Angeles Neophonic Orchestra (Capitol, 1965))
• 1965: Symphony No. 1
• 1965: Essay for Strings
• 1968: Sinfonietta for Wind Ensemble
• 1975: Thomas and the King – Musical
• 1980: Jubilee 350 Fanfare
• 1984: Olympic Fanfare & Theme
• 1986: Liberty Fanfare
• 1987: A Hymn to New England
• 1988: Fanfare for Michael Dukakis
• 1988: For New York
• 1990: Celebrate Discovery
• 1993: Sound the Bells!
• 1994: Song for World Peace
• 1995: Variations on Happy Birthday
• 1999: American Journey
• 2003: Soundings
• 2007: Star Spangled Banner
• 2008: A Timeless Call
• 2012: Fanfare for Fenway
• 2012: Seven for Luck for soprano and orchestra
• 2013: For The President's Own
• 2014: Star Spangled Banner
• 2021: Overture to the Oscars
• 2022: Centennial Overture
• 2023: Of Grit and Glory

• 1951: Sonata for Piano
• 1997: Elegy for Cello and Piano
• 2001: Three Pieces for Solo Cello
• 2007: Duo Concertante for Violin and Viola
• 2009: Air and Simple Gifts for violin, cello, clarinet and piano
• 2011: Quartet La Jolla for violin, cello, clarinet and harp
• 2012: Rounds for solo guitar
• 2013: Conversations for solo piano
• 2014: Music for Brass for Brass Ensemble and Percussion