John Barry: As important to James Bond as Sean Connery. (IMHO)
Composer John Barry Dies At 77
He gave Bond his cool, and a Black Hole substance. He was John Barry (1933-2011), a five-time Academy Award winning composer (Born Free, The Lion in Winter, Out of Africa and Dances With Wolves)who's sweeping scores covered a wide-array of movie genres, everything from action-adventure spy thrillers to science fiction.
John Barry Pendergast was best known for scoring most of the early James Bond films (he composed 11 Bond soundtracks), including Dr. No (1962), From Russia with Love (1963) and Goldfinger (1964), to his last score for The Living Daylights (1987).
Barry's foray into sci-fi, horror and heroes included scores for such movies as King Kong (1976), The Deep (1977), Starcrash (1978), The Black Hole (1979), The Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981) and Howard the Duck (1986). The last film he scored was 2001's Enigma.
Barry was educated at St. Peter's School in York and studied classical piano, but his interest in movies sparked his interest in composing. By the late 1950's Barry was working at EMI records, arranging orchestral accompaniment for the label's various recording artists. His big break came during a television appearance on the popular British TV show Drumbeat, with his band The John Barry Seven. This appearance caught the ear of the producers of the Bond films— the rest is history.
In the 1970's Barry moved to the United States, eventually settling down in Oyster Bay, NY on the swanky North Shore of Long Island. On January 30th Barry suffered a heart attack at his Oyster Bay home. Barry was married 4 times and is survived by his son Jonpatrick and three daughters Susie, Sian and Kate and his 4th wife, Laurie.
No comments:
Post a Comment