The numbers of actors, directors and even producers that the average cinema-goer can name is plentiful. Much less so are the people who compose the soundtracks for those memorable films. There are only a few names that audiences will instantly recognise and the industry lost one of those this week. James Horner, was killed when his small private plane - in which he was travelling alone - apparently crashed just north of Santa Barbara, California on Monday morning. He was 61.
Horner's library of work is extensive. His first big break was working on the second Star Trek film The Wrath of Khan. With ten Oscar nominations, he won the first Oscar for the Titanic film score and got a second his work with Will Jennings on that film's memorable My Heart Will Go On, sung by Celine Dion. He also worked on other James Cameron films including Aliens and Avatar. The list of credits goes on with too many to mention them all - but which include A Beautiful Mind and Apollo 13 (for director Ron Howard), Braveheart (for Mel Gibson), Troy (for Wolfgang Petersen), The Legend of Zorro, Apocalypto, The Boy on the Striped Pajamas, Windtalkers, The Devil's Own, Courage Under Fire, The Spitfire Grill, Legends of the Fall, The Rocketeer, Sneakers, The Pelican Brief, Patriot Games, The Karate Kid and The Amazing Spider-man.
You can hear a selection of some of his memorable work here....
