The most popular film composer of the modern era, John Williams created music for some of the most successful motion pictures in Hollywood history -- #Star Wars, #E.T. the Extra Terrestrial, and #Jurassic Park are just three of the credits in his extensive oeuvre. Born February 8, 1932, in Long Island, NY, he was himself the son of a movie studio musician, and he followed in his father's footsteps by studying music at UCLA and Juilliard; initially, he pursued a career as a jazz pianist, later working with Henry Mancini to compose the score for the hit television series #Peter Gunn. Williams then went solo to pen a number of TV soundtracks for series including #Playhouse 90, #Wagon Train, and #Bachelor Father; in 1959 he ventured into film with #Daddy-O, and spent the majority of the 1960s alternating between the silver screen (#The Killers, #The Plainsman) and its smaller counterpart (#Gilligan's Island, #Lost in Space).

In 1968 Williams earned his first Academy Award nomination for his work in #Valley of the Dolls; in 1970, he garnered nods for both #The Reivers and #Goodbye, Mr. Chips, and two years later finally won for #Fiddler on the Roof. A slew of Oscar nominations followed, for features including #The Poseidon Adventure, #Images, #Tom Sawyer, and #The Towering Inferno. In 1974 he first teamed with a young filmmaker named Steven Spielberg on a movie titled #The Sugarland Express; the two frequently reteamed over the years to come, with often stunning results -- #Jaws, #Close Encounters of the Third Kind, #Raiders of the Lost Ark, #E.T., #Jurassic Park, and #Schindler's List were just a few of the Spielberg/Williams pairings, with #Jaws, #E.T., and #Schindler's List all winning the composer Academy Awards.

Williams' other most frequent collaborator was George Lucas; beginning with 1977's #Star Wars -- yet another Williams Oscar winner -- they later teamed for 1980's #The Empire Strikes Back and 1983's #Return of the Jedi, with the composer agreeing to score Lucas' subsequent #Star Wars films as they went into production in 1997. He even celebrated his 30th anniversary of working with Steven Spielberg with 2002's #Minority Report soundtrack. Other scores of note included 1979's #Superman, 1987's #The Witches of Eastwick, 1988's #The Accidental Tourist, 1991's #JFK, and 1995's #Nixon. In 1980, Williams also took over for the late Arthur Fiedler as the conductor of the Boston Pops.

~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi