James Horner

Born August 14, 1953 in Los Angeles, CA, died June 22, 2015 in an airplane accident in Los Padres National Forest (opens in a new tab), CA. American film music composer, conductor and orchestrator.
In 1997, he won two Academy Awards for his score and song compositions for the film "Titanic".
Horner started playing piano at the age of 5. He studied at the Royal College Of Music in London, under György Ligeti. He received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California, and eventually earned a master's and started working on his doctorate, studying with Paul Chihara, among others. After several scoring assignments with the American Film Institute in the 1970's, he finished his teaching of music theory at UCLA and turned to film scoring.
He made his breakthrough in 1982, when he scored "Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan". In total, he has scored over 100 films, but he has also done some music for short films, three orchestral pieces and music for television, including the current theme music for the CBS Evening News (beginning September 5, 2006).
Horner's most known scores include: "Aliens", "Willow", "An American Tail: Fievel Goes West", "Legends of the Fall", "Braveheart", "Apollo 13", "Titanic", "A Beautiful Mind" and "The Mask of Zorro", among others. He has worked often with director Ron Howard, a collaboration that started with the 1985 film "Cocoon".