Favourite Composers
by LeSamourai86 | created - 04 Feb 2016 | updated - 07 Apr 2016 | PublicNot in order. Will update occasionally.
1. 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 ...
2. 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 ...
3. Carter Burwell
Composer | Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri
Carter Burwell was born on November 18, 1954 in New York City, New York, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017), Carol (2015) and The Banshees of Inisherin (2022). He has been married to Christine Sciulli since 1999.
4. John Carpenter
Writer | The Fog
John Howard Carpenter was born in Carthage, New York, to mother Milton Jean (Carter) and father Howard Ralph Carpenter. His family moved to Bowling Green, Kentucky, where his father, a professor, was head of the music department at Western Kentucky University. He attended Western Kentucky ...
5. Lalo Schifrin
Music_department | Rush Hour
Immensely talented, Argentinian born pianist, conductor and composer who has written over 100 scores for both television & the cinema including the memorable themes to Mission: Impossible (1966), Mannix (1967), Starsky and Hutch (1975), Cool Hand Luke (1967), and Bullitt (1968). Schifrin has ...
6. 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 ...
7. Ennio Morricone
Composer | The Hateful Eight
A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first ...
8. Michael Small
Composer | Klute
Michael Small was born on May 30, 1939 in New York City, New York, USA. He was a composer, known for Klute (1971), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981) and Marathon Man (1976). He was married to Lynn. He died on November 24, 2003 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, USA.
9. Dave Grusin
Music_department | The Fabulous Baker Boys
Dave Grusin was born on June 26, 1934 in Littleton, Colorado, USA. He is a composer and actor, known for The Fabulous Baker Boys (1989), The Firm (1993) and The Graduate (1967). He was previously married to Edith Ruth Price, Sara Jane Tallman and Barbara Jo Davidson.
10. Basil Poledouris
Composer | RoboCop
Basil Poledouris was born on August 21, 1945 in Kansas City. He started taking piano lessons when he was 7 years old. Eventually, he went on to become a student at USC, where he studied the arts of directing, cinematography, editing, sound and, of course, music. It was also at USC he met John Milius...
11. Tangerine Dream
Composer | Thief
The pioneering German collective Tangerine Dream has been delivering their distinctive style of ambient music for nearly three decades, laying down a foundation of sound textures and sonic imagery that has influenced many of today's electronic musicians. Founded in 1967 by fine art aficinado Edgar ...
12. Harold Faltermeyer
Soundtrack | Beverly Hills Cop
Harold Faltermeyer was born on October 5, 1952 in Munich, Bavaria, West Germany. He is a composer, known for Beverly Hills Cop (1984), Top Gun (1986) and Beverly Hills Cop II (1987). He was previously married to Karin Faltermeyer.
13. Carmine Coppola
Composer | Apocalypse Now
Composer, conductor, arranger and flautist, educated at the Manhattan School of Music (BA, MA) and Juilliard (on scholarship) (MM). He was first flautist for Radio City Music Hall from 1934 to 1936, the Detroit Symphony from 1936 to 1941, the NBC Toscanini Orchestra from 1942 to 1948 and staff ...
14. Georges Delerue
Composer | Platoon
Georges Delerue was born on March 12, 1925 in Roubaix, Nord, France. He was a composer and actor, known for Platoon (1986), Twins (1988) and The Day of the Dolphin (1973). He was married to Micheline Gautron. He died on March 20, 1992 in Los Angeles, California, USA.
15. Jack Nitzsche
Soundtrack | An Officer and a Gentleman
Jack Nitzsche was born on April 22, 1937 in Chicago, Illinois, USA. He was a composer and actor, known for An Officer and a Gentleman (1982), The Exorcist (1973) and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975). He was married to Buffy Sainte-Marie and Gracia Ann May. He died on August 25, 2000 in ...
16. Goblin
Soundtrack | Shaun of the Dead
For 25 years, Goblin has been scoring soundtracks for Italian films, mainly Giallo-style films directed by Dario Argento. The group consisted of keyboardist Claudio Simonetti, percussionist Walter Martino, bassist Fabio Pignatelli, guitarist Massimo Morante, percussionist Agostino Marangolo, and ...
17. Claudio Simonetti
Composer | Dèmoni
Claudio Simonetti was born on February 19, 1952 in São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil. He is a composer and actor, known for Demons (1985), The Editor (2014) and Bangkok Dangerous (2008).
18. 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) ...
19. Jóhann Jóhannsson
Composer | Last and First Men
Jóhann Jóhannsson was born on September 19, 1969 in Reykjavík, Iceland. He was a composer and writer, known for Last and First Men (2020), The Theory of Everything (2014) and Sicario (2015). He died on February 9, 2018 in Berlin, Germany.
20. 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 ...
21. Alan Silvestri
Composer | The Polar Express
In his ongoing, decades-long career as a composer, Alan Silvestri has blazed an innovative trail with his exciting and melodic scores, winning the applause of Hollywood and movie audiences the world over. With a credit list of over 100 films Silvestri has composed some of the most recognizable and ...
22. 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 ...
23. James Newton Howard
Composer | 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, ...
24. Mikis Theodorakis
Composer | Z
Mikis Theodorakis was born in the Greek island of Chios, in 1925. It was the same year that the other great composer of Greece was born in Xanthi, Manos Hatzidakis. He fought during the 2nd World War, and was captured at the city of Tripoli. He was tortured, but when he was set free, he joined the ...
25. Philip Glass
Soundtrack | The Truman Show
Born in Baltimore, Maryland, Glass worked in his father's radio store and discovered music listening to the offbeat Western classical records customers didn't seem to want. He studied the violin and flute, and obtained early admission to the University of Chicago. After graduating in mathematics ...
26. Brad Fiedel
Music_department | True Lies
Extremely talented, prolific and versatile composer Brad Fiedel was born on March 10, 1951 in New York City. His mother was a dancer and his father was a composer and musician. Brad started out as a keyboardist for Hall & Oates. Fiedel first began composing music for movies in the mid-70s for such ...
Tell Your Friends