13 Facts About Will Jennings

Wilbur Herschel Jennings was an American lyricist.

Will Jennings was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame and won several awards including three Grammy Awards, two Golden Globe Awards, and two Academy Awards.

Wilbur Herschel Will Jennings was born in Kilgore, Texas, on June 27,1944, the youngest of three siblings.

Will Jennings attended school near Tyler, Texas, in the Chapel Hill Independent School District.

Will Jennings graduated from Tyler Junior College and taught English at the college.

Will Jennings collaborated on many songs for film, the most notable being "Up Where We Belong" for An Officer and a Gentleman, a song that won the Academy Award in America and the BAFTA in the United Kingdom and was a number one hit for Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes.

In 1997, Jennings wrote the world-wide number one Celine Dion hit "My Heart Will Go On" for the film Titanic with his collaborator James Horner.

Titanic's director, James Cameron, had at first been opposed to having a theme song playing over the closing credits, but Horner, having composed the instrumental motif, felt that it needed words and secretly had Will Jennings write a lyric.

Will Jennings wrote several songs for Roy Orbison's King of Hearts album.

Will Jennings wrote "Tears in Heaven" with Eric Clapton, which won song of the Year and won the Ivor Novello award for best song from a film.

In 2002, Horner and Will Jennings contributed a song for the Oscar-winning film A Beautiful Mind.

Will Jennings married Carole Elizabeth Thurman on August 14,1965, in Tyler, Texas.

Will Jennings was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006 and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame seven years later.