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John Barry Pendergast (Nov. 3, 1933-Jan. 30, 2011) British film composer, probably best known for his work on the James Bond films, where he composed for no fewer than 12 Bond films.
Started out with his own jazz combo "The John Barry Seven" in the late Fifties before getting into film composing when asked to arrange Monty Norman's theme for the first James Bond movie Dr. No. Stylistically, Barry's music tends toward the moody side, with extremely limited use of Fanfare (all but eliminating the brighter instruments in the orchestra in favor of deep undertones and rich, dark melodies). His most popular pieces consist of a lyrical theme accompanied by broken chords with a French horn countermelody. Because his music typically does not include iconic themes (well, except for that one), some have accused his various film scores of being "interchangeable".
John Barry passed away on January 30, 2011 in New York from a heart attack.
Barry created music for:
- Almost all of the James Bond films, from From Russia with Love to The Living Daylights.
- Exceptions: Live and Let Die, The Spy Who Loved Me and For Your Eyes Only.
- The Internet Movie Database lists Barry as an uncredited composer for Dr. No as well. A court ruling, however, awarded the credit for the Bond theme itself to Monty Norman.
- The Lion in Winter
- King Kong (1976)
- The Black Hole
- Howard the Duck
- Out of Africa (1985)
- Dances with Wolves
- Biopic Chaplin
- Somewhere in Time
- Born Free
- Zulu
- Starcrash