Favourite Composers
by Veezi | created - 06 Jan 2013 | updated - 06 Jan 2013 | Public
1. Hans Zimmer
Composer | Gladiator
German-born composer Hans Zimmer is recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents. He featured in the music video for The Buggles' single "Video Killed the Radio Star", which became a worldwide hit and helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video to ...
2. Steve Jablonsky
Composer | Transformers
Steve Jablonsky is an American film composer who is known for his collaborations with film directors Michael Bay and Peter Berg. He composed five Transformers films, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Out of the Shadows, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Friday the 13th, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Lone ...
3. James Newton Howard
Music_department | King Kong
James Newton Howard attended the University of Southern California's music school, but dropped out to tour with Elton John, and eventually compose music for film and television. He started with Head Office (1985) in 1985. He has been nominated for eight Academy Awards. He currently is a songwriter, ...
4. Howard Shore
Music_department | The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
Howard Shore is a Canadian composer, born in Toronto. He was born in a Jewish family. He started studying music when 8-years-old, and played as a member of bands by the time he was 13-years-old. He was interested in a professional career in music as a teenager. He studied music at the Berklee ...
5. Danny Elfman
Music_department | The Nightmare Before Christmas
As Danny Elfman was growing up in the Los Angeles area, he was largely unaware of his talent for composing. It wasn't until the early 1970s that Danny and his older brother Richard Elfman started a musical troupe while in Paris; the group "Mystic Knights of Oingo-Boingo" was created for Richard's ...
6. John Powell
Composer | How to Train Your Dragon 2
John Powell was born on September 18, 1963 in London, England, UK. He is a composer, known for How to Train Your Dragon 2 (2014), Happy Feet (2006) and Shrek (2001). He was previously married to Melinda Lerner.
7. James Horner
Music_department | Titanic
James Horner began studying piano at the age of five, and trained at the Royal College of Music in London, England, before moving to California in the 1970s. After receiving a bachelor's degree in music at USC, he would go on to earn his master's degree at UCLA and teach music theory there. He ...
8. Thomas Newman
Music_department | Skyfall
Thomas Newman is an American film score composer. He was born in Los Angeles. His father was notable film score composer Alfred Newman (1900-1970). The Newman family is of Russian-Jewish descent, and includes several other well-known musicians. Thomas' mother Martha Louis Montgomery (1920-2005) ...
9. John Ottman
Editor | Bohemian Rhapsody
John Ottman holds dual distinctions as a leading film composer and an award winning film editor. Ottman has often completed both monumental tasks on the same films. Such remarkable double duties have included The Usual Suspects, X-Men 2, Superman Returns, Valkyrie, and Jack the Giant Killer. He has...
10. Bernard Herrmann
Composer | North by Northwest
The man behind the low woodwinds that open Citizen Kane (1941), the shrieking violins of Psycho (1960), and the plaintive saxophone of Taxi Driver (1976) was one of the most original and distinctive composers ever to work in film. He started early, winning a composition prize at the age of 13 and ...
11. John Barry
Soundtrack | Out of Africa
John Barry was born in York, England in 1933, and was the youngest of three children. His father, Jack, owned several local cinemas and by the age of fourteen, Barry was capable of running the projection box on his own - in particular, The Rialto in York. As he was brought up in a cinematic ...
12. John Williams
Composer | Jurassic Park
As one of the best known, awarded, and financially successful composers in US history, John Williams is as easy to recall as John Philip Sousa, Aaron Copland or Leonard Bernstein, illustrating why he is "America's composer" time and again. With a massive list of awards that includes over 52 Oscar ...
13. Klaus Badelt
Composer | Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl
Composer Klaus Badelt started his musical career writing and producing music for dozens of highly successful movies and commercials in his native Germany. In 1998, Oscar-winning composer Hans Zimmer invited him to move his musical home to Media Ventures in Santa Monica, CA. Since then, Klaus has ...
14. Charlie Clouser
Music_department | Saw
Charlie Clouser is a recording artist and composer for film and television who lives in Los Angeles.
The recipient of sixteen BMI Film & TV Music awards, Charlie has also received ten platinum and gold record awards for his work as a member of the band Nine Inch Nails, and as a producer, programmer,...
15. Thomas Bergersen
Music_department | Cloud Atlas
Born in Norway. Masters degree in Composition and Orchestration. Music composer and orchestrator in the entertainment industry. Has composed music for movies, TV shows, commercials, radio shows, and movie advertisements. Thomas is the co-founder and co-owner of "Two Steps From Hell" LLC. - A ...
16. Nick Phoenix
Music_department | Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides
Nick Phoenix is known for Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011), Horse Girl (2020) and Mass Effect 3 (2012).
17. Joseph Trapanese
Composer | Oblivion
Joseph Trapanese is a composer and music producer known for integrating his extensive classical training with his skill producing electronic music. He has crafted uniquely hybrid and inventive scores for a number of film and television projects, including Tron: Legacy (with Daft Punk), Oblivion (...
18. Daniel Licht
Composer | Dexter
Composer of the Emmy-winning show Dexter (2006) and hugely popular video games, Silent Hill and Dishonored, one of Daniel Licht's first experiences as a musician resulted in him hanging out with Miles Davis and playing jazz with Don Cherry in New York City. Licht continued to develop as a musician ...
19. Martin O'Donnell
Sound_department | Little Shop of Horrors
Martin O'Donnell is known for Little Shop of Horrors (1986), Destiny (2014) and Halo (2022). He is married to Marcie O'Donnell. They have two children.
20. Nobuo Uematsu
Composer | Fainaru fantajî sebun adobento chirudoren
He's been called the John Williams of the video game world, and the description is apt. Born in Kouchi City, Japan on March 21, 1959, Nobuo started playing the piano at the age of 12 and has never been formerly taught. By his own admission, he said he wanted to learn to play the piano because he ...
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