Template:Realworld James Horner (born 14 August 1953; age 70) is the Oscar-winning composer who wrote and conducted the music for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and Star Trek III: The Search for Spock. His work on the former was his first score for a high-profile motion picture.
Born in Los Angeles, California, Horner studied at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London, England. He went on to receive a bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, followed by a masters degree and a doctorate from UCLA. After scoring student films for the American Film Institute, Horner entered a career in film scoring.
Horner began his career composing film scores for several B-movie pictures produced by Roger Corman, including Battle Beyond the Stars and Sorceress, as well as low-profile horror movies such as The Hand, Wolfen, and Wes Craven's Deadly Blessing. His breakthrough work was his score for Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, which opened whole new opportunities for the budding film composer. Although he would continue to do work for Roger Corman, he was also being assigned to work on films with a wider mass appeal. Since then, Horner has collaborated primarily with acclaimed director Ron Howard (brother of Clint Howard).
In 1987, Horner earned his first of many Oscar nominations in the category Best Music, Original Score for his work on James Cameron's 1986 science fiction blockbuster Aliens. He also shared a nomination in the Original Song category that same year for co-writing "Somewhere Out There", the theme for the animated film An American Tail. Horner would go on to earn an Oscar nomination for his scoring of the film Field of Dreams.
In 1996, he was nominated twice in the same category (Best Music, Original Dramatic Score) for his work on Ron Howard's Apollo 13 and Mel Gibson's Braveheart. In 1998, he received two more Oscar nominations for scoring James Cameron's 1997 blockbuster hit Titanic and writing the music for the film's song "My Heart Will Go On" – winning both. He would go on to earn Oscar nominations for his work on Ron Howard's A Beautiful Mind and Vadim Perelman's House of Sand and Fog.
Among the many other film scores which Horner has composed are 48 Hrs., Something Wicked This Way Comes, Krull, Brainstorm, Cocoon, The Land Before Time, Glory, Honey, I Shrunk the Kids, The Rocketeer, An American Tail: Feivel Goes West, Patriot Games, The Pelican Brief, Legends of the Fall, Clear and Present Danger, Ransom, Courage Under Fire, The Mask of Zorro, Deep Impact, The Perfect Storm, How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Enemy at the Gates, The Missing, Troy, Flightplan, and The New World.
- James Horner actually appears in the "Battle Stations" scene of Star Trek II in a brief, nonspeaking role as a Starfleet cadet.
Filmography
- Another 48 Hours (1990; with Kevin Tighe, Ed O'Ross, David Anthony Marshall, Bernie Casey, Page Leong, Allan Graf, Biff Yeager, Rex Pierson, Benjamin Lum, Victor Brandt and Shauna O'Brien; stunts by Patricia Tallman)
External links
- James Horner at Wikipedia
- Template:IMDb-link