John Barry (composer)

John Barry Prendergast (3 November 1933 – 30 January 2011) was an English composer and conductor of film music.

Upon completing his national service, he formed a band in 1957, the John Barry Seven.

After national service he worked as an arranger for the orchestras of Jack Parnell and Ted Heath, forming his own band, the John Barry Seven, in 1957.

The John Barry Seven recorded hit records on EMI's Columbia label including "Hit and Miss", the theme tune he composed for the BBC's Juke Box Jury programme; a cover of the Johnny Smith song "Walk Don't Run"; and a cover of the theme for the United Artists western The Magnificent Seven.

He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958.

He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr. No, who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman.

Noel Rogers, the head of music at United Artists, approached Barry.

This started a successful association between Barry and the Bond series that lasted for 25 years.

Barry received awards including five Academy Awards: two for Born Free and one each for The Lion in Winter (for which he also won the first BAFTA Award for Best Film Music), Out of Africa and Dances with Wolves (both of which also won him Grammy Awards).

By 1959 Barry was gaining commissions to arrange music for other acts, starting with a young trio on Decca, coincidentally called the Three Barry Sisters, though unrelated both to Barry and American duo The Barry Sisters.

The career breakthrough for Barry was the BBC television series Drumbeat, when he appeared with the John Barry Seven.

He was employed by EMI from 1959 until 1962 arranging orchestral accompaniments for the company's singers, including Adam Faith.

He also composed songs (along with Les Vandyke) and scores for films in which Faith was featured.

When Faith made his first film, Beat Girl (1960), Barry composed, arranged and conducted the film score, his first.

His music was later released as the UK's first soundtrack album.

Barry also composed the music for another Faith film, Never Let Go (also 1960), orchestrated the score for Mix Me a Person (1962), and composed, arranged and conducted the score for The Amorous Prawn (also 1962).

In 1962, Barry transferred to Ember Records, where he produced and arranged albums.

These achievements caught the attention of the producers of a new film called Dr. No (1962) who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman.

Barry was hired and his arrangement of Norman's composition created the "James Bond Theme".

He composed the scores for eleven of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, as well as arranging and performing the "James Bond Theme" for the first film in the series, 1962's Dr. No.

He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, as well as the scores of The Scarlet Letter, Chaplin, The Cotton Club, Game of Death, The Tamarind Seed, Mary, Queen of Scots and the theme for the television series The Persuaders!, in a career spanning over 50 years.

When the producers of the Bond series sought to hire Lionel Bart to score the next James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963), they learned that Bart could not read or write music.

Though Bart wrote a title song for the film, the producers remembered Barry's arrangement of the James Bond Theme and his composing and arranging for several films with Adam Faith.

Bart also recommended Barry to producer Stanley Baker for his 1964 film Zulu.

That same year Bart and Barry collaborated on the film Man in the Middle; and then, in 1965, Barry worked with director Bryan Forbes in scoring the World War II prison-camp drama King Rat.

He moved to the United States in 1975 and lived there until his death in 2011.

Barry was born John Barry Prendergast in York, the youngest of four children.

His mother, a classical pianist, was English; his Irish father, John Xavier "Jack" Prendergast from Cork, was a projectionist during the silent film era and later owned a chain of cinemas across northern England.

As a result of his father's work, Barry was raised in and around cinemas in northern England and he later stated that this childhood background influenced his musical tastes and interests.

He had two older brothers and one older sister.

Barry was educated at St Peter's School, York, and received composition lessons from Francis Jackson, Organist of York Minster.

Barry spent his national service in the British Army playing the trumpet, working from a correspondence course with jazz composer Bill Russo.

He also received ten Golden Globe Award nominations, winning once for Best Original Score for Out of Africa in 1986.

In 1999, he was appointed with an OBE for services to music.

Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father.

During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet.

Barry completed his last film score, Enigma, in 2001 and recorded the successful album Eternal Echoes the same year.

In 2001, Barry became a Fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors, and, in 2005, he was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.

Barry was married four times and had four children.

He then concentrated chiefly on live performances and co-wrote the music to the musical Brighton Rock in 2004 alongside Don Black.