John Williams

Also known as Johnny Williams, John T. Williams

American composer and conductor (born 1932)

AI overview

John Williams is an American composer and conductor born in 1932 who has created music for some of the most famous films and orchestral works of the past several decades. He is widely recognized as one of the most important and influential composers in contemporary music, known for his memorable movie scores and symphonic compositions.

AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Born: 1636?
Died: 1709
Works: 92

Top works

The history of the powder=treason
The truth of the Holy Scriptures
A sermon preach'd at the funeral of the Reverend Thomas Jekyll, D.D.
A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons, on Wednesday the 11th of December, 1695
A vindication of the answer to the popish address presented to the ministers of the Church of England

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Sound · Queens, New York City, New York, USA

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. In a career that has spanned seven decades, he has composed some of the most popular, recognizable, and critically acclaimed film scoresin cinema history. He has a distinct sound that mixes romanticism, impressionism and atonal music with complex orchestration. He is best known for his collaborations with Steven…

Known for

Jaws @ 50: The Definitive Inside Story — Self2025
Music by John Williams — Self - Composer2024
John Williams in Tokyo — Self2024
Disney Legends Awards Ceremony — Self2024
John Williams: A Legacy In Sound — Self2024
Henry Mancini: 100 at the Hollywood Bowl — Self2024
Anne-Sophie Mutter - Vivace — Self2023
The Making of Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny — Self2023
The Fabelmans: A Family in Film — Self2023
Timeless Heroes: Indiana Jones and Harrison Ford — Self2023

via TMDB

Music · MusicBrainz

Type: Person
Gender: Male
Country: United States
Active from: 1932

Discography

via MusicBrainz · CC0

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners: 2,336,475
Total plays: 71,132,318

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

Generalized Gradient Approximation Made Simple
· 1996 · cited 200,169x
Highly accurate protein structure prediction with AlphaFold
· 2021 · cited 41,509x
The PHQ-9
· 2001 · cited 38,226x
Gene Ontology: tool for the unification of biology
· 2000 · cited 36,302x
Matplotlib: A 2D Graphics Environment
· 2007 · cited 34,187x

via Crossref · CC0

Wikidata facts

Image: John Williams 2024.jpg

Show 8 more facts

Commons category: John Williams (composer)
date of birth: 1932-01-01
Commons gallery: John Williams (composer)
birth name: John Towner Williams
start of work period: 1952-00-00
name in native language: John Williams
P8168: 1958 UCI Track Cycling World Championships
social media followers: 347000

Sources (9)

via Wikidata · CC0

~40 min read

Article

John Towner Williams (born February 8, 1932) is an American composer and conductor. Over his seven-decade career, he has composed many of the best known scores in film history. His compositional style blends romanticism, impressionism, and atonal music with complex orchestration. Best known for his collaborations with George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, he has received numerous accolades, including 27 Grammy Awards, five Academy Awards, seven BAFTA Awards, three Emmy Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards. With a total of 54 Academy Award nominations, he is the second-most nominated person in the award's history, after Walt Disney. He is also the oldest Academy Award nominee in any category, receiving a nomination at 91 years old.

Williams's early work as a film composer includes None but the Brave (1965), Valley of the Dolls (1967), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), Images, The Cowboys (both 1972), The Long Goodbye (1973) and The Towering Inferno (1974). He has collaborated with Spielberg since The Sugarland Express (1974), composing music for all but five of his feature films. He received five Academy Awards for Best Score/Best Score Adaptation for Fiddler on the Roof (1971; score adaptation of the original music by Jerry Bock), Jaws (1975), Star Wars (1977), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) and Schindler's List (1993). Other memorable collaborations with Spielberg include Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones franchise (1981–2023), Hook (1991), Jurassic Park (1993) and its sequel The Lost World: Jurassic Park (1997), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Catch Me If You Can (2002), War Horse (2011), Lincoln (2012), and The Fabelmans (2022). He also scored Superman (1978), the first two Home Alone films (1990–1992), and the first three Harry Potter films (2001–2004).