John Williams



John Williams is the composer who wrote all of the music of the Star Wars films. He has also composed soundtracks for many other well known movies, as well as some for older TV shows.

Biography
John Towner Williams was born in 1932, Long island, USA. His father and stepmother were actors so the young John got into contact with movies and their world. But, his interest in music had always been bigger so no one was surprised when he wanted to continue his studies in California University, Los Angeles and got accepted.

In 1951, he unexpectedly joined the Air Force and spent three years there. Thereafter he returned and continued his studies and started learning to play on the piano in the Music school of Juliard, New York. To finish his studies, he went back to Los Angeles to study composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. When he was applied in 1956 by Columbia Pictures, his combined dream of music and film were merged. There was more in the young Williams than simply playing as an ordinary pianist: so he soon joined the 20th Centaury Fox where he received work to compose and create music.

As "Johnny" Williams he composed music to such classical TV series like Wagon Train, Gilligan's Island and Bachelor Father. These works paved the way for him to Irwin Allen's Lost in Space.

He achieved smaller and larger successes with None But the Brave (1965), followed by the nomination for the Oscar Award for Valley of the Dolls in 1967. Following his winage of the Oscar in 1971 for Violist on the Roof, he started his glorious career. Whatever he worked on turned out to be a success, his works were followed by awards and nominations. He became one of the most popular composers and was mentioned with talent equal to Jerry Goldsmith, John Berry and Elmer Bemstein. He had 6 nominations within 5 years, among them 2 double-nominations in 1969 and 1972 for films Goodbye Mr. Chips, The Reivers, Images, The Poseidon Adventure, Cinderella Liberty and Hell Tower.

In 1975, he met Steven Spielberg, who was a novice director back then. Their first common work is the film Jaws. The frightening music he composed for this movie perfectly expressed the approach of the dreadful creature and set a basic feeling for the film. People began flocking to watch the film in large numbers. For the huge success of the movie, John Willians was pivotal, and he received the first Oscar Award for his own work. The flourishing career continued with Indiana Jones, E.T. and Schindler's List. Williams was awarded Oscars for the music in E.T., Superman, Shindler's List and Jurassic Park.

His greatest hit was just to come: Star Wars. The music was composed with a live full orchestra which made the space-war story memorable. Bowers and tooters, competing with one another were trying to make a more effective feeling.

His 41 nominations for the Oscar is merely 4 fewer than Alfred Newman's, who was nominated 45 times and won 9 times.

His son also chose a musical career like his father. They worked together on the Return of the Jedi. Joseph Williams orchestrated the music in Jabba's Palace, which only appeared in the Special Edition.