John Barry

John Barry Prendergast OBE 3 November 1933 30 January 2011 was an English composer and conductor of film music He composed the scores for eleven of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987 as well as arranging and performing the James Bond Theme for the first film in the series 1962s Dr No He wrote the Grammy and Academy Awardwinning scores to the films Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa as well as the scores of The Scarlet Letter Chaplin The Cotton Club The Tamarind Seed Mary Queen of Scots Game of Death and the theme for the television series The Persuaders in a career spanning over 50 years In 1999 he was appointed with an OBE for services to music Born in York Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet Upon completing his national service he formed a band in 1957 the John Barry Seven He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music making his début for television in 1958 He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr No who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman Noel Rogers the head of music at United Artists approached Barry This started a successful association between Barry and the Bond series that lasted for 25 years Barry received awards including five Academy Awards two for Born Free and one each for The Lion in Winter for which he also won the first BAFTA Award for Best Film Music Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa both of which also won him Grammy Awards He also received ten Golden Globe Award nominations winning once for Best Original Score for Out of Africa in 1986 Barry completed his last film score Enigma in 2001 and recorded the successful album Eternal Echoes the same year He then concentrated chiefly on live performances and cowrote the music to the musical Brighton Rock in 2004 alongside Don Black In 2001 Barry became a Fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters Composers and Authors and in 2005 he was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts Barry was married four times and had four children He moved to the United States in 1975 and lived there until his death in 2011 Description above from the Wikipedia page John Barry licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia