34 Facts About James Horner

James Roy Horner was an American film composer and conductor.

James Horner worked on more than 160 film and television productions between 1978 and 2015.

James Horner was known for the integration of choral and electronic elements alongside traditional orchestrations, and for his use of motifs associated with Celtic music.

James Horner wrote the score for the highest-grossing film of all time, Cameron's Avatar.

James Horner, who was an avid pilot, was killed in a single-fatality crash while flying his Short Tucano turboprop aircraft.

James Horner was born on August 14,1953, in Los Angeles, California, to Jewish immigrant parents.

James Horner's father, Harry Horner, was born in Holice, Czech Republic, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

James Horner emigrated to the United States in 1935 and worked as a set designer and art director.

James Horner's mother, Joan Ruth, was born to a Canadian family.

James Horner's brother Christopher is a writer and documentary filmmaker.

James Horner returned to America, where he attended Verde Valley School in Sedona, Arizona, and later received his bachelor's degree in music from the University of Southern California.

Director Nicholas Meyer quipped that James Horner was hired because the studio could no longer afford the first Trek movie's composer, Jerry Goldsmith; but that by the time Meyer returned to the franchise with Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country, the studio could not afford James Horner either.

James Horner continued writing high-profile film scores in the 1980s, including 48 Hrs.

In 1990, James Horner conducted a new fanfare for Universal Pictures which was first used in Back to the Future Part III.

James Horner scored six films in 1995, including his commercially successful and critically acclaimed works for Braveheart and Apollo 13, both of which received Academy Award nominations.

At the 70th Academy Awards, James Horner received the Oscar for Best Original Dramatic Score, and shared the Oscar for Best Original Song with co-writer Will Jennings for "My Heart Will Go On".

James Horner worked on smaller projects such as Iris, Radio and Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius.

James Horner received his eighth and ninth Academy Award nominations for A Beautiful Mind and House of Sand and Fog, but lost on both occasions to composer Howard Shore.

In early 2015, after a three-year hiatus, James Horner wrote the music for the adventure film Wolf Totem, his fourth collaboration with director Jean-Jacques Annaud.

At the time of his death, James Horner had scored two films yet to be released:.

In July 2015, a month after his death, it was discovered James Horner had written the score for the 2016 remake of The Magnificent Seven, planning it as a surprise.

James Horner wrote the theme music for the Horsemen P-51 Aerobatic Team, and appears in The Horsemen Cometh, a documentary about the team and the P-51 Mustang fighter plane.

James Horner was criticized on many occasions for reusing passages from his earlier compositions and for featuring brief excerpts and reworked themes from classical composers.

James Horner was a qualified private pilot and owned several small airplanes.

James Horner's studio was filled with small automatons and objects which he purchased and collected over time.

James Horner died on June 22,2015, when his turboprop aircraft, a Short Tucano with registration number N206PZ, crashed into the Los Padres National Forest near Ventucopa, California.

James Horner was the only occupant of the aircraft when it took off after fueling at Camarillo Airport.

James Horner was survived by his wife, Sara Elizabeth Horner, and two daughters.

The NTSB interviewed two witnesses of the flight, who were in their homes when James Horner flew over them; one said that the plane was flying at between 500 and 750 feet.

Avatar: The Way of Water, which James Horner was set to work on before he died, was dedicated to his memory.

James Horner won two Academy Awards, for Best Original Dramatic Score and Best Original Song in 1998, and was nominated for an additional eight Oscars.

James Horner won two Golden Globe Awards, three Satellite Awards, three Saturn Awards, six Grammys, and was nominated for three British Academy Film Awards.

In October 2013, James Horner received the Max Steiner Award at the Hollywood in Vienna Gala, an award given for extraordinary achievement in the field of film music.

Five of James Horner's scores were among 250 nominees, making him the most nominated composer to not make the top twenty-five.