Early Life
James Horner was born James Roy Horner on August 14, 1953, in Los Angeles, California. He was the son of Jewish immigrants. His mother, Joan, came from Canada, and his father, Harry, was born in the Czech Republic and came to the U.S. in 1935. Harry worked as an art director and set designer, and he won Academy Awards for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White for “The Heiress” (1950) and “The Hustler” (1962). James’ younger brother, Christopher, is a documentary filmmaker and a former scenic designer. Horner began playing piano when he was five years old, and he also learned how to play the violin. During his early years, he lived in London, and he studied with composer György Ligeti at the Royal College of Music. After returning to the U.S., James attended Arizona’s Verde Valley School, followed by the University of Southern California, where he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in music. He then earned a master’s degree and started working toward a doctorate at the University of California, Los Angeles. In the ’70s, he landed numerous scoring assignments for the American Film Institute and taught a music theory course at UCLA.
Career
Horner began his career as a film composer for the Roger Corman movies “The Lady in Red” (1979), “Humanoids from the Deep” (1980), and “Battle Beyond the Stars” (1980). After he scored 1982’s “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan,” James became an established Hollywood composer. Next, he worked on 1982’s “48 Hrs.,” 1983’s “Space Raiders,” “Something Wicked This Way Comes,” “Krull,” “Brainstorm,” “Gorky Park,” and “Uncommon Valor,” 1984’s “Star Trek III: The Search for Spock,” and 1985’s “Heaven Help Us,” “Cocoon,” “The Journey of Natty Gann,” and “Commando.” He earned his first Academy Award nomination for his score for the 1986 film “Aliens.” That year he also worked on “An American Tail,” and the song “Somewhere Out There” won Grammy Awards for Song of the Year and Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television and received Best Original Song nominations from the Academy Awards and Golden Globe Awards. Horner followed “Aliens” and “An American Tail” with the films “*batteries not included” (1987), “Willow” (1988), “The Land Before Time” (1988), “Cocoon: The Return” (1988), and “Honey, I Shrunk the Kids” (1989), and he earned an Academy Award nomination for the 1989 sports drama “Field of Dreams” and a Golden Globe nomination for the 1989 Civil War epic “Glory.” In the ’90s, James worked on films such as “I Love You to Death” (1990), “Another 48 Hrs.” (1990), “The Rocketeer” (1991), “An American Tail: Fievel Goes West” (1991), “Patriot Games” (1992), “A Far Off Place” (1993), “Hocus Pocus” (1993), “Searching for Bobby Fischer” (1993), “The Man Without a Face” (1993), “We’re Back! A Dinosaur’s Story” (1993), “Clear and Present Danger” (1994), “Jumanji” (1995), “Courage Under Fire” (1996), “The Devil’s Own” (1997), “Deep Impact” (1998), and “Bicentennial Man” (1999). He earned Academy Award nominations for his work on 1995’s “Braveheart” and “Apollo 13,” and he won two Oscars and several other awards for 1997’s “Titanic” score and its hit song “My Heart Will Go On,” which was performed by Celine Dion. Horner started the 2000s off with “The Perfect Storm” and “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” and he received a Golden Globe nomination for 2001’s “A Beautiful Mind.” Next, Horner worked on “Radio” (2003), “Troy” (2004), “The Legend of Zorro” (2005), “Apocalypto” (2006), “The Spiderwick Chronicles” (2008), “The Karate Kid” (2010), and “The Amazing Spider-Man” (2012), and earned Academy Award nominations for 2003’s “House of Sand and Fog” and 2009’s “Avatar.” He also wrote the scores for “Southpaw” (2015), “The 33” (2015), and “The Magnificent Seven” (2016), which were released posthumously.
Personal Life and Death
James married Sara Elizabeth Nelson in June 1985, and they remained together until his death in 2015. The couple welcomed two daughters together. In a documentary that was made after James died, Sara revealed, “He would say himself, and did at the end of his life, that he had Asperger’s, and he definitely had a different kind of neurological wiring.” A qualified private pilot, Horner owned a few small airplanes, and on June 22, 2015, he was flying his Short Tucano turboprop aircraft when it crashed into the Los Padres National Forest. James lost his life in the crash, which was ruled an accident by the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office. He was 61 years old at the time of his death. The National Transportation Safety Board’s post-accident investigation found that the primary cause of the crash was Horner’s inability to maintain clearance from terrain when flying at low altitudes. A toxicology test showed that James had traces of codeine, butalbital, and ethanol in his system at the time of his death.
Awards and Nominations
Horner received 10 Academy Award nominations, winning for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score for “Titanic” and Best Music, Original Song for “My Heart Will Go On” in 1998. His other nominations were for Best Music, Original Score for “Aliens” (1987), “Field of Dreams” (1990), “A Beautiful Mind” (2002), and “House of Sand and Fog” (2004), Best Music, Original Dramatic Score for “Braveheart” (1996), and “Apollo 13” (1996), Best Music, Original Song for “Somewhere Out There” from “An American Tail” (1987), and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Score for “Avatar” (2010). “Titanic” also earned James two Golden Globes, two ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards, three Grammys, and two Satellite Awards, among other awards. He also won two Grammys for “An American Tail” (1988) and one for “Glory” (1991). Horner received more than 20 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards, and he earned BAFTA Award nominations for the Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for “Braveheart,” “Titanic,” and “Avatar.”
