Academy Award-winning composer James Horner, whose career spanned more than 35 years, has died in a plane crash according to The Hollywood Reporter. He was 61.
Horner is credited with composing music for more than 150 film and television productions, beginning with 1978's The Watcher, when he was just 24. He worked initially for Roger Corman's New World Pictures, scoring music for low-budget genre films like The Lady in Red and Battle Beyond the Stars, then worked on Oliver Stone's directorial debut The Hand, as well as atmospheric thrillers like Wolfen, before moving on to blockbusters with 1982's Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.
Thereafter, he became incredibly busy; the following year alone he scored eight movies. He received his first Academy Award nominations in 1987 for James Cameron's Aliens and the animated adventure An American Tail, and three more nominations followed for Field of Dreams, Braveheart and Apollo 13.
In 1998, he won two Oscars for Titanic (Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Song).
Horner continued to earn Academy Award nominations (A Beautiful Mind, House of Sand and Fog, Avatar), often working with directors multiple times, most notably Ron Howard and James Cameron, who also got their start at New World Pictures in the 1970s. He became known for his sweeping orchestral scores, sometimes mournfully sentimental, and sometimes joyfully triumphant.
He completed musical scores for at least three upcoming movies: boxing drama Southpaw, adventure epic Wolf Totem, and mine-disaster drama The 33. James Horner and his musical talents will be sorely missed.
