John Williams is among the most influential and recognizable film composers of all time. His career has spanned seven decades, during which he has composed some of the world’s most iconic film music, including the scores to Star Wars (which the American Film Institute named the greatest score of all time in 2005), Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, E.T., Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park, Schindler’s List, Saving Private Ryan, and Harry Potter. The list just goes on and on.
Williams has been awarded with five Oscars (though nominated 52 times), four Golden Globes, 25 Grammys, and seven British Academy Film Awards. It's hard to overstate his influence on pop culture over the years, but all good things must come to an end. Williams, who turned 90 in February, has strongly suggested that he will retire from film score composing after the fifth Indiana Jones film, which is set to hit theaters in June 2023.
However, there's good news – after his retirement from such an incredible movie career, John Williams has no intention of throwing in the towel completely. He plans to focus on composing independent symphony and orchestra pieces.
Even though he will step away from the world of film composing, Williams maintains that he will always be enchanted by cinema, which he believes has a tremendous future. “I’d love to be around in 100 years to see what people are doing with film and sound,” he told the Associated Press. “I’d love to come back and see and hear it all.”
The king of Hollywood music:
- Of the top 25 highest-grossing films of all time in the United States, John Williams composed the score for nine of them.
- The 1967 film Valley of the Dolls earned John Williams his first Academy Award nomination for scoring. In 1971, he won his first Academy Award for his score adaptation for the film Fiddler on the Roof.
- Steven Spielberg and John Williams enjoyed decades of successful collaboration together. Spielberg was responsible for recommending Williams to George Lucas to compose the music for Star Wars.