James Horner, the film composer of Titanic, Braveheart, and Avatar, died Monday at the age of 61.
NewsJames Horner, one of the most popular film composers in Hollywood and whose expansive career included two Oscars for his work on Titanic, died Monday in a plane crash in Santa Barbara. He was 61.
Horner had been missing since his personal aircraft vanished following an emergency call earlier on Monday morning, and the news of his passing was confirmed late tonight by Horner’s personal assistant, Sylvia Patrycja.
In an online statement, Patrycja wrote, “We have lost an amazing person with a huge heart and unbelievable talent. He died doing what he loved.”
Horner’s career spanned nearly 40 years in the industry where he was nominated for a stunning 10 Academy Awards, winning two for both the score and original song “My Heart Will Go On” in Titanic. But his career has touched so many more with flourishes that included work on James Cameron’s Aliens (1986), Glory (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), The Rocketeer (1991), Braveheart (1995), Apollo 13 (1995), The Mask of Zorro (1998), A Beautiful Mind (2001), and Avatar (2009). He most recently completed work on next month’s Southpaw.
When I think of James Horner’s music, I often reflect on the swelling emotion of loss and transcendence, found in the quiet hidden yearning of the North Atlantic, or on a Scottish battlefield, or most beautifully in the underrated ascension of peace found in the smoke fumed sand dunes outside of Fort Wagner. But he also was a frequent collaborator of some of the most heart-pounding or euphoric music in recent blockbuster memory, such as the sound of flamingo dancers’ entwined feet, echoing in his brilliant work on Zorro. And their tango will still continue on in that film’s sounds.
Horner will be missed by all who had the pleasure of hearing that sound.
