john williams biography pdf

John Williams

Oscar-winning composer John Williams has scored more than 100 movies, including Jaws , the Star Wars movies, E.T. , and the first three Harry Potter films.

We may earn commission from links on this page, but we only recommend products we back.

1932-present

Latest News: John Williams Celebrates 54 th Oscar Nomination

“Part of it is being very lucky, to be able to work as long as I have been able to do, health-wise and opportunity-wise,” he said. “And I don’t think one ever gets really jaded to the point where these things are meaningless. Certainly not in my case.”

Despite his age, Williams insists he isn’t done making music and is currently working on a new concert piece. His longtime collaborator, director Steven Spielberg , claims Williams is eager to work with him on another movie. “Because John has been my primary creative partner across my entire film career. And that’s not gonna end until we do,” Spielberg told Variety .

Quick Facts

Early years and musical studies.

• Filmography: Star Wars, Home Alone, Harry Potter, and Many More

Additional Music

Oscars and other awards, wives and children, who is john williams.

John Williams is an Oscar - and Grammy Award –winning composer and conductor known for creating some of the most recognizable movie scores in history, including for Jaws , E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , Jurassic Park , and the Star Wars franchise. The one-time Juilliard student worked as a jazz pianist and studio musician before starting to compose for television and film. His career took off in the 1970s; since then, he has scored more than 100 films. The 26-time Grammy winner has also won five Oscars. His 54 Academy Award nominations are the most of any living person and second only to the late Walt Disney ’s 59.

FULL NAME: John Towner Williams BORN: February 8, 1932 BIRTHPLACE: Queens, New York SPOUSES: Barbara Ruick (1956-1974) and Samantha Winslow (1980-present) CHILDREN: Joseph, Mark, and Jennifer ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius

John Towner Williams was born in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, New York, on February 8, 1932. His father was a musician, and Williams started taking piano lessons at a young age.

With his family, a teenaged Williams moved to Los Angeles in 1948. He attended the University of California at Los Angeles for a short time before being drafted into the U.S. Air Force in 1951.

After three years of military service, Williams returned to New York City, where he worked as a jazz pianist. He also attended the Juilliard School, studying with famed teacher Rosina Lhevinne in pursuit of his dream of becoming a concert pianist. However, Williams confessed in a 2012 interview with NPR that at Juilliard he heard “players like John Browning and Van Cliburn around the place, who were also students of Rosina’s, and I thought to myself, ‘If that’s the competition, I think I’d better be a composer!’”

Filmography: Star Wars , Home Alone , Harry Potter , and Many More

Returning to Los Angeles, Williams became a movie studio musician. He worked as a pianist on movies such as Some Like It Hot (1959) and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Working with Henry Mancini, Williams also played piano on the theme for the TV show Peter Gunn . Soon, Williams was composing his own music for television. Shows that received his musical touch include Wagon Train , Gilligan’s Island , and Lost in Space .

Williams also composed and arranged music for the big screen, starting with the 1959 movie Daddy-O . He received his first Academy Award nomination for 1967’s Valley of the Dolls before his career really took off in the 1970s. In 1972, Williams won an Oscar for his work on Fiddler on the Roof . He received two more Oscar statues and his first six Grammys before the decade was over.

In his ongoing career, Williams has worked on more than 100 movies. His trademark compositions are soaring scores that often feature recurring musical motives. He is perhaps best known for his work with directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas . “I have to say, without question, John Williams has been the single most significant contributor to my success as a filmmaker,” Spielberg once said.

Almost all of Spielberg’s films have Williams scores. Their notable collaborations include Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Munich (2005), and Lincoln (2012).

Williams also composed the music for Lucas’ six Star Wars movies. In 2013, it was announced that Williams would write the score for Episode VII (2015), and he later returned for Episode VIII (2017) and IX (2019).

The impressive body of work that Williams has created includes music for many other movies, such as Superman (1978), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Home Alone (1990), JFK (1991), Angela’s Ashes (1999), the first three Harry Potter films, Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and The Book Thief (2013).

More recently, Williams composed music for The Fabelmans , the 2022 semi-autobiographical movie based on the early life of longtime collaborator Spielberg . The duo reteamed once more for 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny , starring Harrison Ford as the titular explorer.

Although Williams is best known for his film scores, he has written other music, including concert pieces and the themes for several Olympic Games. His composition “A Prayer For Peace” won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition in 2007. Williams originally wrote the cello concerto for renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma .

Williams also regularly works as a conductor. In 1980, he became the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a position he held until retiring in 1993. Williams still serves as a laureate conductor for the Pops and has also conducted the London Symphony and popular concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.

To date, Williams has collected five Oscars for his film scores. His Academy Award –winning work is from the movies Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) (1977), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Schindler’s List (1993).

His trophies pale in comparison to his overall Oscar nominations. Williams has garnered a whopping 54 Academy Award nods, making him the most nominated person alive. Only the late Walt Disney has more with 59. Williams’ most recent Oscar nomination is for composing the original score of the 2023 movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny . At age 92, he is also the oldest Oscar nominee in history.

Elsewhere, Williams has received three Emmy Awards and 26 Grammy Awards . He won his first Grammy in 1976 for his Jaws score. Williams most recently won a Grammy in 2024 for composing the theme for Helena Shaw, actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character in Dial of Destiny .

In 2004, Williams was a Kennedy Center honoree, and in 2009, he was given a National Medal of Arts. Williams also received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.

In June 1980, Williams married Samantha Winslow , a photographer and interior designer.

Williams was previously married to musical actor Barbara Ruick from 1956 through 1974, when Ruick unexpectedly died from a cerebral hemorrhage. Williams and his first wife had three children: a daughter named Jennifer and sons Joseph and Mark. Joseph pursued a musical career like his father, becoming a vocalist for the rock band Toto .

As of December 2023, Williams’ total fortune is estimated to be at around $300 million .

• I developed from very early on a habit of writing something every day, good or bad.
• I don’t have a synthesizer or computer. I haven’t been educated in that technology. When I was studying and learning music, these things didn’t exist, and I’ve actually been too busy in the intervening years to retool and learn it all.
• I think also, especially for practicing musicians, age is not so much of a concern because a lifetime is just simply not long enough for the study of music anyway. You’re never anywhere near finished. So the idea of retiring or putting it aside is unthinkable. There’s too much to learn.
• It feels good to hold a pen or pencil in your hand and dirty up paper.

Fact Check: We strive for accuracy and fairness. If you see something that doesn’t look right, contact us !

Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.

Sara Kettler is a Connecticut-based freelance writer who has written for Biography.com, History, and the A&E True Crime blog. She’s a member of the Writers Guild of America and also pens mystery novels. Outside of writing, she likes dogs, Broadway shows, and studying foreign languages.

Academy Awards

Timothée Chalamet

Cillian Murphy

Justin Timberlake

14 Hispanic Women Who Have Made History

Cillian Murphy & Sterling K. Brown Oscars Grooming

The 2024 Oscar Winners and Nominees

Billie Eilish

Christopher Nolan

Ryan Gosling

Robert Downey Jr.

Katie Breathwick 1am - 4am

Now Playing

Egmont Overture Opus 84 Ludwig Van Beethoven Download 'Egmont Overture Opus 84' on iTunes

John Williams (1932-present)

John Williams (1932-present) is the most prolific and widely honoured living composer of film music and the most Oscar-nominated person alive.

Life and Music He was born in New York but moved to Los Angeles with his family when he was 16. He attended UCLA and studied composition with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. After service in the Air Force, Williams returned to New York to attend Juilliard where he studied piano with Rosina Lhevinne. He also worked as a jazz pianist in both clubs and on recordings. Williams moved back to Los Angeles and began his career in film studios working with such composers as Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, and Franz Waxman. He went on to write music for many television programmes in the 1960s, winning two Emmys for his work. Beginning with his first screen credit, for Because They're Young, Williams' career as a composer of film scores gathered steady momentum. In 1974 Steven Spielberg came to John Williams after being moved by his score to The Reivers to score Sugarland Express. It was the beginning of one of the greatest film composer/director collaborations ever. His first Oscar was for his adaption of the music for the screen version of Fiddler on the Roof. In 1976 he received his second for Jaws. In 1978, an Oscar for Star Wars followed in a competition that included his score for Close Encounters of the Third Kind. Oscars were also awarded for E.T. and the haunting Schindler's List soundtrack. Williams has composed the music and served as music director for more than seventy-five films. In addition to his film music, Williams has written many concert pieces including two symphonies, a bassoon concerto, a cello concerto, concertos for flute and violin, a trumpet concerto, and concertos for clarinet and tuba. Did you know? Williams has received 54 Academy Award nominations, with five wins.

John Williams video

John Williams features

John williams’ 10 greatest movie soundtracks, all of john williams’ 54 oscar nominations so far – including five wins, 10 of john williams’ all-time greatest film themes, ranked, listen to classic fm’s exclusive 90th-birthday interview with film music legend john williams, top john williams pieces, e.t. - theme john williams (b.1932 : u.s.a) conductor: john williams ensemble: london symphony orchestra record label: classic fm catalogue id: cfmcd 46, harry potter - harry's wondrous world john williams (b. 1932 : u.s.a.) conductor: john williams ensemble: studio orchestra record label: sony classical catalogue id: 8869 1942532, hymn to the fallen john williams conductor: john williams ensemble: boston symphony orchestra;tanglewood festival chorus record label: geffen records catalogue id: drd 50046, schindler's list - theme john williams (b.1932 : u.s.a) conductor: john williams ensemble: pittsburgh symphony orchestra soloists: itzhak perlman record label: sony catalogue id: s2k 51333, star wars - main theme john williams (b.1932 : u.s.a) conductor: john williams ensemble: london symphony orchestra record label: sony catalogue id: sk 62788, most shared john williams features, the time two musicians played star wars outside john williams’ house… and had a great surprise, john williams, 91, wins his 26th grammy award for ‘indiana jones’ theme, 10 greatest film composers of all time.

Discover Music

Movie maestro John Williams named 2023’s most-performed living composer

John williams is not retiring, says he likes to ‘keep an open mind’ at age 91, john williams becomes an honorary knight of the order of the british empire, john williams conducts magical ‘harry potter’ in front of illuminated hogwarts castle, indiana jones and the dial of destiny soundtrack: all the songs from john williams’ nostalgia-fuelled adventure, harrison ford: ‘raiders march follows me everywhere… it was in my last colonoscopy’, why beethoven’s fifth symphony makes a surprise appearance in indiana jones and the dial of destiny, john williams emerges from behind curtain, to conduct surprise ‘indiana jones’ at us premiere, conductor leads full orchestra in ‘jurassic park’ theme – dressed as a tiny-armed t-rex, harry potter soundtrack: what are the famous themes and did john williams score all the movies, which film scores have won best soundtrack at the oscars all winning scores from the last 50 years, braimah kanneh-mason performs deeply moving ‘schindler’s list’ theme 30 years on from the film’s release, organist anna lapwood plays epic ‘star wars’ in fireworks-filled finale at royal albert hall, john williams latest.

See more John Williams latest

What classical music is in Spielberg’s ‘The Fabelmans’, and does Michelle Williams really play the piano?

John williams makes history as oldest person to be nominated for an academy award, steven spielberg confirms a documentary on film music legend john williams is coming, ‘thank you, maestro’ – spielberg says john williams wrote ‘the fabelmans’ music as a gift to the director’s parents, ‘you still got it’ – 90-year-old john williams casually plays brahms concerto during recording session, the 50 best film scores of all time, ‘i played the shark theme to spielberg and he said, “you can’t be serious”’ – john williams on composing jaws, john williams hints at retirement from film music, says new score might be his last, unearthed footage reveals steven spielberg and john williams composing music for e.t . together, people are only just realising the spotify play bar becomes a lightsaber when you listen to star wars, best classical music.

See more Best classical music

The 15 most famous tunes in classical music

The 15 greatest symphonies of all time, the 4 eras of classical music: a quick guide, the 25 greatest conductors of all time, 30 of the greatest classical music composers of all time, the 25 best pianists of all time, latest on classic fm, freddie de tommaso breaks down what exactly makes ‘nessun dorma’ the greatest aria of all, who is yunchan lim piano sensation’s debut chopin album, competitions and best performances, alexander armstrong surprises music charity with ‘transformative’ £61,400 donation, why were piano keys once white and black – and why did they reverse, hundreds of ballerinas set ‘en pointe’ world record in spectacular display, the piano on channel 4: what is the talent contest, who are the judges and when is season 2, nimble-fingered recorder virtuoso goes viral playing classical concertos in his car, the classic fm music teacher of the year awards 2024 with abrsm – nominate an inspiring teacher, new antonio vivaldi biopic announced, directed by oscar-winning filmmaker, the 15 most relaxing film scores.

Academia.edu no longer supports Internet Explorer.

To browse Academia.edu and the wider internet faster and more securely, please take a few seconds to  upgrade your browser .

Enter the email address you signed up with and we'll email you a reset link.

• We're Hiring!
• Help Center

John Williams. Music for Films, Television, and the Concert Stage

2018, Contemporary Composers Series

Once mostly considered a commercial composer and a mere rewriter of previous composers’ styles, only recently Williams’ music has begun to be taken seriously, and scholars from the music and the film departments have begun to produce research in the form of books, journal articles, conference papers, and Ph.D. theses. The present volume seeks to build upon, complement and review what has been written so far on Williams. This volume is a large exploration of the many sides of Williams's output, aimed at showing the range of his production (not merely focussing on film music) and at analysing the depth of his dramaturgic and compositional skills with selected case studies. To accomplish this exploration – which has not the pretence of exhaustiveness but certainly that of being an accurate survey possessing both latitude and depth – a large team of international scholars has been assembled from all around the world. The contributors come from film and music departments, to provide a variety of disciplinary perspectives on Williams's work.

Related Papers

In: John Williams. Music for Films, Television, and the Concert Stage, edited by Emilio Audissino. Turnhout: Brepols.

Emilio Audissino

John Williams: Music for Films, Television, and the Concert Stage

Mark Richards

John Williams is perhaps best known for his film music themes, most of which are based on eight-bar models that divide into discernible halves of 4+4 bars, each half usually containing two short ideas of two bars each. Though this type of thematic structuring has been the norm for the majority of Hollywood film history, Williams’s themes include variation more frequently than is typical for Hollywood films. After dividing Williams' film scores into four style periods, this chapter demonstrates that these variation-based themes occur mainly in his second period (the mid 1970s through the early 1990s) when the association includes an element of fantasy. It is argued that this thematic structure, in which the initial idea is not merely repeated or contrasted with, but varied, is a musical expression of fantasy. In this way, Williams strengthens the bond between theme and association by translating a fundamental element of the association into strictly musical terms.

Pablo Mendoza

David Roche

Journal of Film Music

Christine Gengaro

Choice Reviews Online

Melissa Ursula Dawn Goldsmith

The Soundtrack

Stephen Deutsch

Current Musicology

giorgio biancorosso

Paula Musegades

Nathan Platte

RELATED PAPERS

Constantin Schifirnet

Wesam Meshrif

The Political Quarterly

sithara radhakrishnan

Crystal Din

Proceedings of the 4th Asia-Pacific Bioinformatics Conference

D. Holmgren

The Journal of experimental biology

Revista Direito GV

Andreas Krell

The Social Sciences

Md. Rashed Alam

Research, Society and Development

TAÍS ALVES DOS REIS

Edukasi Islami: Jurnal Pendidikan Islam

hidayat ma'ruf

Dirhamsyah Dirhamsyah

Advances in Differential Equations

Maurizio Grasselli

Oleg Bortnovsky

Fidyah Safitri

Halfway between the worlds, that is what we know (and don’t) about the cultural situation in the Hrubieszów Basin and its peripheries in the Roman and Migration Periods, [in:] B. Bartecki, A. Hyrchała, K. Myzgin (eds.), The Cichobórz hoard, Hrubieszów 2023, 160–282

Barbara Niezabitowska-Wiśniewska

Pertanika Journal of Tropical Agricultural Science

SYALIZA OMAR

Journal of the American Geriatrics Society

Bruce Troen

Chinmay Hota

Experiments in Fluids

Salman Buksh

Anish Kumar

BHALCHANDRA JAYAKAR

2019 International Conference on Biometrics (ICB)

Soumyadeep Ghosh

Riccardo Moratto

RELATED TOPICS

•   We're Hiring!
•   Help Center
• Find new research papers in:
• Health Sciences
• Earth Sciences
• Cognitive Science
• Mathematics
• Computer Science
• Academia ©2024

Hey Kids, Meet John Williams | Composer Biography

Hey Kids, Meet John Williams

Hey Kids, Meet John Williams (1932-Present) American Composer, Conductor, and Pianist

John Williams was born in Floral Park, New York, on February 8, 1932, to John and Esther Towner Williams. He was the oldest of four children.

As a kid, Johnny learned to play the piano , cello, trumpet, trombone - and even formed a band with his friends.

When John Williams grew up, he joined the Air Force where he conducted and arranged music for the bands. When he was discharged, he enrolled in The Julliard School to study piano.

After he finished school, he decided to play piano in movie studio orchestras. His first recordings included soundtracks for the movie, South Pacific , and the TV series, Gilligan’s Island .

However, the idea of playing someone else’s music for TV shows and movies didn’t interest him for long. He wanted to compose his own music, and it wasn’t too long before he got his first big break. He was asked to compose the theme for the TV series,  Lost in Space .

His next big break came when film director, Steven Spielberg, invited him to compose music for his movies. Their first highly successful film together was Jaws . For this movie, John Williams wrote the most famous single notes next to the introduction to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony. When John Williams played the music for Speilberg for the first time, he thought he was kidding. However, John Williams believed his score would be perfect. He was right, and his score earned him his second Academy Award.

Working with Steven Spielberg, John Williams went on to compose some of the greatest music ever written for film, including: Raiders of the Lost Ark , Jurassic Park , E.T. , Superman , Harry Potter , and  Star Wars , which was selected by the American Film Institute as the greatest film score of all time.

Steven Spielberg said:

"Without John Williams, bikes don’t really fly. Nor do brooms in Quidditch matches. Nor do men in red capes. There is no Force. Dinosaurs do not walk the earth. We do not wonder. We do not weep. We do not believe." John Williams is without question, "...the single most significant contributor to my success as a filmmaker."

John Williams has won 5 Academy Awards and received 52 Academy Award nominations. He is the second most nominated individual after Walt Disney.

John Williams' Film Scores

Watch a video about john williams.

Learn about American film composer, John Williams, with this popsicle stick theater presentation from the MakingMusicFun.net Academy. Print the John Williams | Free Video Music Lesson Study Guide to drill the facts.

Watch John Williams' conduct his Imperial March from "Star Wars".

Print Related Resources for John Williams

Piano and guitar sheet music.

Shark Attack! (Jaws Tribute) for Beginner Piano Solo by Andrew Fling Star Flight (Star Wars Tribute) for Easy Piano Solo by Andrew Fling Shark Attack! (Jaws Tribute) for Easy Piano Solo by Andrew Fling Shark Attack! (Jaws Tribute) for Beginner Guitar Solo by Andrew Fling

Free Online Piano Lesson for Kids

Shark Attack! (Jaws Tribute) | Beginner Piano Lesson for Kids

Hey Kids, Meet the Composer Worksheets and Games (Famous Composers)

John Williams | Film Score Music Listening Glyphs Harry Potter (John Williams) | Music Listening Glyph Worksheets Star Wars (John Williams) | Music Listening Glyph Jurassic Park (John Williams) | Music Listening Glyph Indiana Jones (John Williams) | Music Listening Glyph John Williams | Crossword Puzzle Worksheet John Williams | Word Search Worksheet John Williams | Composer Coloring Page Meet the Composer Job Application Worksheet Star Force Treble Clef Color-by-Note Worksheet Star Force Bass Clef Color-by-Note Worksheet Wondrous World of Wizards Color-by-Rhythm Worksheet Beethoven at Bat™ | Music Composer Board Game (Digital Print)

Bulletin Board Posters for John Williams

John Williams | Composer of the Month Bulletin Board Pack

John Williams: Reference

A brief biography of John Williams, courtesy of his agents.

Bibliography

A comprehensive bibliography of books and articles featuring interviews with and information about John Williams.

Sheet Music

Lists of published conductor scores and other sheet music.

Major awards and honors received by John Willams.

A note about this site.