- Completely self-taught, he learned everything he knows through collaboration and experimenting.
- The Last Samurai (2003) marked his 100th score.
- His favorite movie theme of all time is from Assault on Precinct 13 (1976) by John Carpenter.
- He told in an interview that he would retire for some years after The Dark Knight (2008), saying he has been exhausted in the past years. He also said that he wants to help young composers and would produce their scores. His future plan is also about touring the world holding concerts with his own music.
- Inspired by Ennio Morricone's The Mission (1986).
- Gladiator (2000) became into one of the best selling film score albums of all time.
- His iconic theme "Journey to the Line" from The Thin Red Line (1998) is heavily used in trailers and various other media. This theme was born out of trial and error. Terrence Malick, the director of The Thin Red Line (1998) had been dissatisfied with Zimmer's results and had him continuously rework melodies and come up with various approaches. Thus "Journey to the Line" was finally born. Many of his latter scores would go on to bear an uncanny resemblance to this classic Thin Red Line theme.
- He was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6908 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on December 8, 2010.
- He pushes collaboration between composers because that is how he learned. Every composer that has come out of Media Ventures learned by working with him on various scores by conducting, writing additional music, or even co-composing with him. Harry Gregson-Williams, John Powell, Mark Mancina, Klaus Badelt and Steve Jablonsky are just a few composers who are now doing solo work after expanding from Media Ventures.
- Was included on the list of "Top 100 Living Geniuses" published by The Daily Telegraph (2007).
- Hans Zimmer's score for The Thin Red Line (1998) would inform the direction he would take in style for the rest of his career. Many directors (especially Christopher Nolan) would employ him based on their love for The Thin Red Line (1998) and the desire for its similar ambiance. More specifically based on the track "Journey to the Line". Ironically, with the exception of "Journey to the Line", most of Zimmer's score did not make the final cut of The Thin Red Line (1998) What was used was often sampled with various other music chosen by Malick to create an intricate work that is often mistakenly credited to Zimmer.
- Co-founder (with Jay Rifkin) of Santa Monica-based music studio Media Ventures (now Remote Control), which has housed composers Mark Mancina, Harry Gregson-Williams, Rupert Gregson-Williams, Nick Glennie-Smith, John Powell, Klaus Badelt, Steve Jablonsky, Geoff Zanelli, Jeff Rona, Jim Dooley, Henning Lohner, James S. Levine, Mel Wesson, and several other composers from all over the world.
- Hans' longtime business partner, Jay Rifkin, filed a $10 million suit against him for conspiring to take business for himself. Because of this lawsuit, Media Ventures changed its name to Remote Control. (December 2003)
- Was nominated for a Tony Award for Original Musical Score in 1998 alongside Elton John, Tim Rice, Lebo M., Mark Mancina, Jay Rifkin and Julie Taymor for their work on the musical version of The Lion King (1994).
- As of 2022, he has contributed with the music score of 11 films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: Rain Man (1988), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), As Good as It Gets (1997), The Thin Red Line (1998), Gladiator (2000), Frost/Nixon (2008), Inception (2010), 12 Years a Slave (2013), Hidden Figures (2016), Dunkirk (2017) and Dune: Part One (2021). Of those, Rain Man (1988), Driving Miss Daisy (1989), Gladiator (2000), and 12 Years a Slave (2013) are winners in the category.
- He is the only composer to do scores for Batman films under two different directors.
- He wrote music for a a 4-minute Maybach commercial.
- He has written and composed scores for all of DC Comics' trinity of heroes: Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman.
- Fans and industry insiders in the film music world credit Crimson Tide (1995) as a turning point in both his career and the scoring business. The Grammy-winning score, often heard in trailers since, was a departure from the norm, making use of digital synthesizers, electronic keyboards, and the latest computer technology to digitally produce a rousing score with traditional orchestral arrangements.
- Was nominated for Film Composer of the Year in 2006 by the International Film Music Critics Association (IFMCA).
- Son of Brigitte (Weil) and Hans Joachim Zimmer, who founded a textiles company, Zimmer AG Frankfurt am Main. His mother Brigitte left Germany in the 1930s as a Jewish refugee from the Nazis, living in England during the war.
- The reason why he was chosen for the movie Lauras Stern (2004), was because, in an interview, he said that he feels that German producers forgot him for composing to a German language movie. One of the producers read the interview and he immediately asked him to do the movie.
- He is the only composer to have done scores for films about Batman and Superman.
- Turned down the chance of working with his frequent collaborator Christopher Nolan in Tenet (2020) in order to work on Dune: Part One (2021) since he is big fan of the novel.
- Last name means 'room' in German.
- The Academy Award created the category Best Original Musical or Comedy Score in 1996, and retired it already in 1999. In its brief 4-year existence, Zimmer was nominated for the award three times, tying him with Randy Newman and Marc Shaiman.
- Has 5 children: one daughter, Zoe, with his ex-wife Vicki Carolin; sons Jake and Max, and daughters Brigitte and Anabelle, with his current wife Suzanne Zimmer.
- He is unable to read sheet music.
- Performed on the infamous 1985 charity single, Doctor In Distress, in which fans of classic BBC TV show "Doctor Who" (1963) campaigned to the BBC to bring back the show, which had been placed on hiatus.
- On June 15, 2023, Zimmer announced his engagement to an entrepreneur Dina De Luca on the stage at the London show. After nearly 2 years of dating.
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