JOHN WILLIAMS AND THE OSCARS
It’s befitting that on the day the Academy Award nominations are announced is also the day that film composer and Steven Spielberg constant, John Williams, celebrates turning 90.
Oscar and the music created by John Williams are intrinsically linked, and not just because of his five Academy Award wins to date.
Williams is the most Oscar-nominated living person, with an astounding 52 nominations under his baton. Not a bad record for this vicinity, and a record only bettered by Walt Disney with 59 nominations.
Alas, this year won’t get him closer to that total as he is not eligible for nomination at the 94th Academy Awards.
What films did John Williams win his Oscars for?
Fiddler on the Roof wins Best Score (Adaptation) (1972)
Here’s John Williams accepting his very first Oscar, for Fiddler on the Roof at the 1972 Academy Awards.
“Jaws” wins Best Original Score (1976)
John Williams didn’t have far to walk to collect his Oscar for Jaws at the 1976 Academy Awards, as he was the Musical Director for that year’s show. Many of those playing in the orchestra pit that day had also played on Jaws. Making it an even more special occasion.
Star Wars wins Best Original Score (1978)
The Force was with John Williams again at the 1978 Academy Awards, trading in scoring duties on the film with the golden android C3PO for another golden Oscar statue.
E.T. – the Extra Terrestrial wins Best Original Score (1983)
At the 1983 Academy Awards John Williams had plenty to phone home about with his wonderous and magical score that brought an unconventional alien not just to life, but into our hearts.
Schindler’s List wins Best Original Score (1994)
Williams’ emotional and thought-provoking score gives us his final Academy Award to date, it is interesting to note that Goldie Hawn (who was in Steven Spielberg’s The Sugarland Express, which was the first film Spielberg and Williams collaborated on) is reading out the nominees here, and also read them out the year that Williams won an Oscar for Jaws.
Three of those Oscar-winning films listed are directed by Steven Spielberg, and three of them – Jaws, Star Wars and E.T. - have also been the highest grossing films of all time.
It seems almost absurd that the likes of Superman: The Movie (1978), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), and Spacecamp (1986) are missing from that list. Okay, so I’m kidding about Spacecamp – which starred future Mrs Steven Spielberg, Kate Capshaw.
But what is even more hard to imagine is that it is almost 30 years since John Williams last won an Academy Award for a film score. That just doesn’t make any sense.
What films has John Williams been Oscar nominated for?
Amazingly, in his second year of being nominated for an Oscar, in 1970, Williams received two nominations. It was no fluke, as it wouldn’t be the only time he would receive multiple nominations in the same Academy Awards, sometimes it would be for scores and other times it would be for Best Score or Best Song.
In 1974 and again in 1996 he was nominated three times in the same year!
Williams would do the double nomination no less than 11 times, including the repeating his Oscar nomination success in 1973, 1978, 1985, 1988, 1990, 1991, 1992, 2002, 2006, 2012.
And the one huge surprise, for me at least, that didn’t make the Oscar nomination list? Jurassic Park (1993), which was released the same year as Schindler’s List. The one year you’d perhaps have expected Williams to do the double Oscar nomination. Alas, life didn’t find a way for that particular memorable score.
To break the complete winning and nominee list down, we have 16 Steven Spielberg films, ten about wars spanning The American Civil War to World War One, World War Two and Vietnam, six Star Wars films, four directly or indirectly about American Presidents, three directed by Oliver Stone, three Indiana Jones films, two disaster movies (three if you count Jaws as part of the genre) and one that made you believe a man could fly.
All over a period of 60 years, which makes it kind of easy to take his greatness and his seemingly ever-present music for granted. We shouldn’t, because one day all we will have are those recordings and a host of yet to be made films and film going experiences that will be poorer for him not having scored them.
When The Maestro makes his final swoosh of his baton, it will be as if a small part of cinema dies with him, but what a rich tapestry of emotive work he will leave behind. And long may he continue.
Valley of the Dolls - Best Original Score (1968)
Goodbye, Mr Chips - Best Original Score (1970)
The Reivers - Best Original Score (1970)
Images - Best Original Score (1973)
The Poseidon Adventure - Best Original Score (1973)
Tom Sawyer - Best Original Score (1974)
Nice to be Around - Best Original Song (1974)
Cinderella Liberty - Best Original Score (1974)
The Towering Inferno - Best Original Score (1975)
Close Encounters of the Third Kind - Best Original Score (1978)
Superman: The Movie - Best Original Score (1979)
The Empire Strikes Back - Best Original Score (1981)
Raiders of the Lost Ark - Best Original Score (1982)
Yes, Giorgio: If We Were in Love- Best Original Song (1983)
Return of the Jedi - Best Original Score (1984)
The River - Best Original Score (1985)
Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom - Best Original Score (1985)
Empire of the Sun - Best Original Score (1988)
The Witches of Eastwick - Best Original Score (1988)
The Accidental Tourist - Best Original Score (1989)
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade - Best Original Score (1990)
Born on the Fourth of July - Best Original Score (1990)
Somewhere in my Memory - Best Original Song (1991)
Home Alone - Best Original Score (1991)
When You’re Alone - Best Original Score (1992)
JFK - Best Original Score (1992)
Sabrina - Best Original Score 1996)
Moonlight - Best Original Score (1996)
Nixon - Best Original Score (1996)
Sleepers - Best Original Score (1997)
Amistad - Best Original Score (1998)
Saving Private Ryan - Best Original Score (1999)
Angela’s Ashes - Best Original Score (2000)
The Patriot - Best Original Score (2001)
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone - Best Original Score (2002)
AI: Artificial Intelligence - Best Original Score (2002)
Catch Me If You Can - Best Original Score (2003)
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban - Best Original Score (2005)
Munich - Best Original Score (2008)
Memoirs of a Geisha - Best Original Score (2006)
War Horse - Best Original Score (2012)
The Adventures of Tintin - Best Original Score (2012)
Lincoln - Best Original Score (2013)
The Book Thief - Best Original Score (2014)
Star Wars: The Force Awakens - Best Original Score (2016)
Star Wars: The Last Jedi - Best Original Score (2018)
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker - Best Original Score (2020)
Words by Dean Newman
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