John Barry: Composer created the score for classics and near-classics such as Born Free, Goldfinger, and Somewhere in Time.
Composer John Barry died at age 77. Although best known for his James Bond scores – 11 in all, including Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, and Diamonds Are Forever – he composed music for a wide variety of films, from James Hill’s Born Free (1966), the Free Willy of the 1960s, to Dino De Laurentiis’ megabudgeted King Kong (1976).
Barry was nominated for seven Oscars; he took home five statuettes: two for Born Free (Best Original Score and Best Original Song, with lyrics by Don Black), in addition to The Lion in Winter (1968), Out of Africa (1985), and Dances with Wolves (1990). His Oscar nominations were for Mary, Queen of Scots (1971) and Chaplin (1992).
Among Barry’s other notable scores are those for Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), The Knack … and How to Get It (1965), Petulia (1968), Midnight Cowboy (1969), the George Cukor-directed television movie Love Among the Ruins (1975), Somewhere in Time (1980), and Mike’s Murder (1984).
Barry’s last film score was for Michael Apted’s 2001 thriller Enigma.