1932-present
Latest News: John Williams Celebrates 54th Oscar Nomination
Although composer John Williams is quick to point out he has lost the vast majority of his 54 Oscar nominations—49, to be exact—he is grateful for each one. The 92-year-old recently spoke to Variety about his illustrious career and latest honor. Nominated for his original score in Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Williams is now the oldest Academy Award nominee in history and is hoping to take home his sixth Oscar trophy on March 10.
“Part of it is being very lucky, to be able to work as long as I have been able to do, health-wise and opportunity-wise,” he said. “And I don’t think one ever gets really jaded to the point where these things are meaningless. Certainly not in my case.”
Despite his age, Williams insists he isn’t done making music and is currently working on a new concert piece. His longtime collaborator, director Steven Spielberg, claims Williams is eager to work with him on another movie. “Because John has been my primary creative partner across my entire film career. And that’s not gonna end until we do,” Spielberg told Variety.
Who Is John Williams?
John Williams is an Oscar- and Grammy Award–winning composer and conductor known for creating some of the most recognizable movie scores in history, including for Jaws, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Jurassic Park, and the Star Wars franchise. The one-time Juilliard student worked as a jazz pianist and studio musician before starting to compose for television and film. His career took off in the 1970s; since then, he has scored more than 100 films. The 26-time Grammy winner has also won five Oscars. His 54 Academy Award nominations are the most of any living person and second only to the late Walt Disney’s 59.
Quick Facts
FULL NAME: John Towner Williams
BORN: February 8, 1932
BIRTHPLACE: Queens, New York
SPOUSES: Barbara Ruick (1956-1974) and Samantha Winslow (1980-present)
CHILDREN: Joseph, Mark, and Jennifer
ASTROLOGICAL SIGN: Aquarius
Early Years and Musical Studies
John Towner Williams was born in the Flushing neighborhood of Queens, New York, on February 8, 1932. His father was a musician, and Williams started taking piano lessons at a young age.
With his family, a teenaged Williams moved to Los Angeles in 1948. He attended the University of California at Los Angeles for a short time before being drafted into the U.S. Air Force in 1951.
After three years of military service, Williams returned to New York City, where he worked as a jazz pianist. He also attended the Juilliard School, studying with famed teacher Rosina Lhevinne in pursuit of his dream of becoming a concert pianist. However, Williams confessed in a 2012 interview with NPR that at Juilliard he heard “players like John Browning and Van Cliburn around the place, who were also students of Rosina’s, and I thought to myself, ‘If that’s the competition, I think I’d better be a composer!’”
Filmography: Star Wars, Home Alone, Harry Potter, and Many More
Returning to Los Angeles, Williams became a movie studio musician. He worked as a pianist on movies such as Some Like It Hot (1959) and To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). Working with Henry Mancini, Williams also played piano on the theme for the TV show Peter Gunn. Soon, Williams was composing his own music for television. Shows that received his musical touch include Wagon Train, Gilligan’s Island, and Lost in Space.
Williams also composed and arranged music for the big screen, starting with the 1959 movie Daddy-O. He received his first Academy Award nomination for 1967’s Valley of the Dolls before his career really took off in the 1970s. In 1972, Williams won an Oscar for his work on Fiddler on the Roof. He received two more Oscar statues and his first six Grammys before the decade was over.
In his ongoing career, Williams has worked on more than 100 movies. His trademark compositions are soaring scores that often feature recurring musical motives. He is perhaps best known for his work with directors Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. “I have to say, without question, John Williams has been the single most significant contributor to my success as a filmmaker,” Spielberg once said.
Almost all of Spielberg’s films have Williams scores. Their notable collaborations include Jaws (1975), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), Catch Me If You Can (2002), Munich (2005), and Lincoln (2012).
Williams also composed the music for Lucas’ six Star Wars movies. In 2013, it was announced that Williams would write the score for Episode VII (2015), and he later returned for Episode VIII (2017) and IX (2019).
The impressive body of work that Williams has created includes music for many other movies, such as Superman (1978), The Witches of Eastwick (1987), Home Alone (1990), JFK (1991), Angela’s Ashes (1999), the first three Harry Potter films, Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) and The Book Thief (2013).
More recently, Williams composed music for The Fabelmans, the 2022 semi-autobiographical movie based on the early life of longtime collaborator Spielberg. The duo reteamed once more for 2023’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, starring Harrison Ford as the titular explorer.
Additional Music
Although Williams is best known for his film scores, he has written other music, including concert pieces and the themes for several Olympic Games. His composition “A Prayer For Peace” won the Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition in 2007. Williams originally wrote the cello concerto for renowned cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Williams also regularly works as a conductor. In 1980, he became the conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra, a position he held until retiring in 1993. Williams still serves as a laureate conductor for the Pops and has also conducted the London Symphony and popular concerts at the Hollywood Bowl.
Oscars and Other Awards
To date, Williams has collected five Oscars for his film scores. His Academy Award–winning work is from the movies Fiddler on the Roof (1971), Jaws (1975), Star Wars: A New Hope (Episode IV) (1977), E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), and Schindler’s List (1993).
His trophies pale in comparison to his overall Oscar nominations. Williams has garnered a whopping 54 Academy Award nods, making him the most nominated person alive. Only the late Walt Disney has more with 59. Williams’ most recent Oscar nomination is for composing the original score of the 2023 movie Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny. At age 92, he is also the oldest Oscar nominee in history.
Elsewhere, Williams has received three Emmy Awards and 26 Grammy Awards. He won his first Grammy in 1976 for his Jaws score. Williams most recently won a Grammy in 2024 for composing the theme for Helena Shaw, actor Phoebe Waller-Bridge’s character in Dial of Destiny.
In 2004, Williams was a Kennedy Center honoree, and in 2009, he was given a National Medal of Arts. Williams also received an honorary knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II in 2022.
Wives and Children
In June 1980, Williams married Samantha Winslow, a photographer and interior designer.
Williams was previously married to musical actor Barbara Ruick from 1956 through 1974, when Ruick unexpectedly died from a cerebral hemorrhage. Williams and his first wife had three children: a daughter named Jennifer and sons Joseph and Mark. Joseph pursued a musical career like his father, becoming a vocalist for the rock band Toto.
Net Worth
As of December 2023, Williams’ total fortune is estimated to be at around $300 million.
Quotes
- I developed from very early on a habit of writing something every day, good or bad.
- I don’t have a synthesizer or computer. I haven’t been educated in that technology. When I was studying and learning music, these things didn’t exist, and I’ve actually been too busy in the intervening years to retool and learn it all.
- I think also, especially for practicing musicians, age is not so much of a concern because a lifetime is just simply not long enough for the study of music anyway. You’re never anywhere near finished. So the idea of retiring or putting it aside is unthinkable. There’s too much to learn.
- It feels good to hold a pen or pencil in your hand and dirty up paper.
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Tyler Piccotti first joined the Biography.com staff as an Associate News Editor in February 2023, and before that worked almost eight years as a newspaper reporter and copy editor. He is a graduate of Syracuse University. When he's not writing and researching his next story, you can find him at the nearest amusement park, catching the latest movie, or cheering on his favorite sports teams.
Sara Kettler is a Connecticut-based freelance writer who has written for Biography.com, History, and the A&E True Crime blog. She’s a member of the Writers Guild of America and also pens mystery novels. Outside of writing, she likes dogs, Broadway shows, and studying foreign languages.
