James Horner, the film composer who won an Academy Award for co-writing “My Heart Will Go On” for 1997’s Titanic, died in a plane crash outside Santa Barbara yesterday. He was 61.
An avid pilot, Horner was flying solo flying his two-seater single-engine S312 Tucano when he crashed north of Santa Barbara, sparking a brushfire.
Horner has composed music for over 100 films earning 64 nominations for various awards including the Academy Awards, the Grammys, the Golden Globes, the BAFTA Awards and the ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards. He would 45 of those nominations.
Although he started out working on low budget films such as The Watcher (1978) and The Lady In Red (1979), his first big break came when he was hired to score Star Trek II – The Wrath Of Khan (1982). He returned to the franchise for Star Trek III – The Search For Spock in 1984 but his workload had become such that he was unavailable to return for future installments of the franchise.
Horner collaborated with director James Cameron on three films, 1986’s Aliens, 1997’s Titanic and 2009’s Avatar, and had been planning on working on Cameron’s Avatar sequels.
Other films for which Horner composed music include Battle Beyond The Stars, An American Tail, Field of Dreams, The Rocketeer, Patriot Games, Swing Kids, Apollo 13, Braveheart, The Mask Of Zorro, A Beautiful Mind, The Boy In The Striped Pajamas and The Amazing Spider-Man.
