JAMES HORNER (1953 - 2015)

Oscar winning composer James Horner has died at the age of 61 in a plane crash in southern California. Horner a trained pilot was flying one of his own aircraft when it crashed. 

Horner was one of Hollywood’s most in-demand composers and has won two Oscars for Titanic and numerous award nominations. His score for Titanic remains the best selling orchestral film soundtrack of all time. For the last 30 years he has composed music for blockbusters such as Aliens, Star Trek II, Apollo 13, Braveheart and A Beautiful Mind.

As a songwriter, he earned an Oscar nomination and two 1987 Grammys including Song of the Year for “Somewhere Out There,” written with Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil for the animated film An American Tail and also another popular animated-film franchise The Land Before Time.

In recent years, his outputs have considerably lessen with Avatar, The Amazing Spider-man and The Karate Kid being the handful of bigger titles. His last cinematic outing is the Jake Gyllenhaal’s boxing drama, Southpaw due to be release in July.

A big salute to the man who brought us an amazing trail of memorable music pieces.