R.I.P. John Barry

[Reza]

latimes.com




John Barry dies at 77; composer scored 11 James Bond films




Barry won five Oscars for films such as 'Born
Free' and 'Out of Africa' and scored Bond films
including 'Goldfinger,' 'Diamonds Are Forever'
and 'From Russia With Love.' His work on the Bond
franchise put him in the forefront of music composers.

By Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times

February 1, 2011

John Barry, a five-time Academy Award-winning
composer of movies such as "Born Free" and "Out
of Africa" who earned a prominent spot in
pop-culture history by writing the scores for 11
James Bond films, including "From Russia With
Love" and
"<http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=DLh8oDnWHHw>Goldfinger,"
has died. He was 77.

Barry died Sunday in New York, where he
reportedly had lived for some time, his family
said in a statement. The cause of death was not released.

"I think he's without a doubt one of the giants
of film music of the last 50 years," Jon
Burlingame, a film music historian who teaches at
USC, told The Times on Monday.

In a more than 40-year film composing career that
began in 1960, the British-born Barry won his
first two Oscars for the 1966 film
<http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=MhGeH07lo5Mfor>"Born
Free" ­ best original music score and best
original song (for the popular title song, which
he wrote with lyricist Don Black).

Barry's other Oscars for best original score were
for "The Lion in Winter" (1968),
<http://www.youtube.com/watch%3Fv=1dWDarPc1kY>"Out
of Africa" (1985) and "Dances with Wolves"
(1990). He also was nominated for "Mary, Queen of
Scots" (1971) and "Chaplin" (1992).

His work on the Bond films in the 1960s helped
launch Barry into the forefront of movie music composers.

It began with Barry's work on Monty Norman's
theme for "Dr. No," the 1962 movie debut of
author Ian Fleming's 007, starring Sean Connery.
The movie was scored by Norman.

Barry went on to score "From Russia With Love,"
"Goldfinger," "Thunderball," "You Only Live
Twice," "On Her Majesty's Secret Service,"
"Diamonds Are Forever," "The Man with the Golden
Gun," "Moonraker," "Octopussy," "A View to Kill" and "The Living Daylights."

"I think James Bond would have been far less cool
without John Barry holding his hand," fellow Bond
movie composer David Arnold told BBC Radio after learning of Barry's death.

Of Barry's memorable arrangement of the Bond
theme for "Dr. No," Arnold told Burlingame for a
2008 article in Daily Variety: "You have the
bebop-swing vibe coupled with that vicious, dark
distorted electric guitar, definitely an instrument of rock 'n' roll.

"Sound-wise, it represented everything about the
character you would want: It was cocky,
swaggering, confident, dark, dangerous,
suggestive, sexy, unstoppable. And he did it in two minutes."

In 2001, Norman won libel damages over a Sunday
Times of London article that reported that he did
not write the famous James Bond theme. The
newspaper denied libel, arguing that Barry was the composer of the tune.

The case for the newspaper, according to a Press
Association account, was that Barry had been
brought in to write the theme at a late stage in
the project "because Norman had run out of inspiration and there was a crisis."

Although Barry reportedly told the jury that
Norman's claim that he alone wrote the theme was
"absolute nonsense," the jury delivered a unanimous verdict in Norman's favor.

In the 2008 Daily Variety article, Barbara
Broccoli, who began producing the Bond films in
1995, praised Barry's work. She is the daughter
of original Bond producer Albert R. "Cubby" Broccoli.

"John is part of the original DNA of the Bond
film franchise," she said. "The sound he created
was unique and ultimately very important to the
whole cinematic history of Bond."

In chronicling Barry's transformation as a film
composer, Burlingame said Monday that Barry's
"career begins in a twangy guitar, jazz-rock
idiom [in the 1960 film 'Beat Girl'], progresses
through the fresh pop-orchestral sound of the
James Bond films and eventually becomes one of
grandly romantic, lushly orchestrated, symphonic
scores for movies like 'Out of Africa' and 'Dances with Wolves.' "

Barry's long and varied list of credits as a
composer includes "Zulu," "Seance on a Wet
Afternoon," "King Rat," "Petulia," "Midnight
Cowboy," "Robin and Marian," the 1976 version of
"King Kong," "Somewhere in Time," "Body Heat,"
"The Cotton Club," "Peggy Sue Got Married" and "Indecent Proposal."

A four-time Grammy Award winner, he also composed
music for the 1970s television movies "Eleanor
and Franklin," "The Glass Menagerie" and "Love Among the Ruins."

"With any great artist, there is a signature to
their work," Black, who collaborated frequently
with Barry, told Variety in 2008.

"You only have to hear a bar of Sinatra and you
know it's him, instantly," he said. "It's the
same with John Barry. Listen to 'Diamonds Are
Forever' or 'You Only Live Twice' or 'Goldfinger'
and you know from the first notes."

Barry, the youngest of four siblings, was born
John Barry Prendergast on Nov. 3, 1933, in
Yorkshire, England, where his father owned a
number of movie theaters and his mother was a pianist.

Barry began studying piano at age 9 and later
learned trumpet and studied orchestration. At 18,
he joined the British Army and served in a
military band while stationed in Egypt and
Cyprus, where he took a correspondence course in arranging.

After his discharge, he formed his own
instrumental group, the John Barry Seven, which
played what has been described as jazz-influenced
rhythm and blues and rock 'n' roll. The group had
a number of hits and also provided backing for
singer Adam Faith. When Faith appeared in the
movie "Beat Girl," Barry did the score.

Barry, whose theater work includes the musicals
"Billy" and "Brighton Rock," was inducted into
the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1998. A year
later, he was made an officer of the Order of the British Empire.

Barry was divorced three times. Survivors include
his wife of 33 years, Laurie, four children and five grandchildren.

[Hustler]

Jean Simmons died the day before the ceremony, obviously not enough time to hastily include her in the segment.

Let´s hope see York included at the Oscars ceremony.



Edited By Hustler on 1296613798

[OscarGuy]

My guess would be there's a cut off date they can't add more names.

The awards this year were held January 30.

Postlethwaite & Francis died 1/2/11
York died 1/15/11

My guess would be the list was formed somewhere around the three week mark so the montage could be edited together. York died just about two weeks prior to the ceremony, Postlethwaite & Francis died four weeks before.

The awards last year were held January 23.

Jean Simmons died the day before the ceremony, obviously not enough time to hastily include her in the segment.



Edited By OscarGuy on 1296561229

[Big Magilla]

Speaking of In Memoriam segments, did SAG change the way they do the segment to go by the prior calender year? I would have thought Jean Simmons, who died January 22nd of last year would have been included in last year's presentation and those who died in early January this year, including Susannah York, would have been included in last night's ceremony, but instead we got Simmons last night and no York or anyone else who recently died as far as I could tell.

However Pete Postlewhite was included.

Yes, and so was Anne Francis, come to think of it.

Quite odd, really.

[Hustler]

Speaking of In Memoriam segments, did SAG change the way they do the segment to go by the prior calender year? I would have thought Jean Simmons, who died January 22nd of last year would have been included in last year's presentation and those who died in early January this year, including Susannah York, would have been included in last night's ceremony, but instead we got Simmons last night and no York or anyone else who recently died as far as I could tell.

However Pete Postlewhite was included.

[Big Magilla]

Speaking of In Memoriam segments, did SAG change the way they do the segment to go by the prior calender year? I would have thought Jean Simmons, who died January 22nd of last year would have been included in last year's presentation and those who died in early January this year, including Susannah York, would have been included in last night's ceremony, but instead we got Simmons last night and no York or anyone else who recently died as far as I could tell.

[Reza]

The theme from Out of Africa would make a great accompaniment for the In Memoriam segment, no?

Yes I agree.

[The Original BJ]

The theme from Out of Africa would make a great accompaniment for the In Memoriam segment, no?

[dws1982]

Not only can I not picture any of those three without Barry's scores, I thought the 2003 Glenn Close-Patrick Stewart TV remake of The Lion in Winter looked and sounded like an amateur production without it.

Barry's score for the original was great, but I think the 2003 version of The Lion in Winter, with a much better director at the helm, improves on the 1968 film in almost every other regard.

[Big Magilla]

For me, it was the one-two-three punch of Born Free; The Lion in Winter and Midnight Cowboy that set him above and beyond his contemporaries.

Not only can I not picture any of those three without Barry's scores, I thought the 2003 Glenn Close-Patrick Stewart TV remake of The Lion in Winter looked and sounded like an amateur production without it.

[Hustler]

What a loss! I´ve still in my mind the score of Midnight Cowboy!

[Damien]

A Facebook friend posted:

Barbra Streisand "commissioned him to write the music for her directorial debut, Prince of Tides (1991), but when she began to interfere with his work, Barry resigned, telling her: 'You don’t buy a dog and do the barking yourself.' When Barbra Streisand protested that she adored all his scores, he replied: 'Yup. And I wrote them all without you.'

[OscarGuy]

He is one of the legends. Aside from John Williams, he was one of the few composers that nearly 100% moviegoers would recognize at least one of his compositions, thanks mainly to his James Bond themes. It's hard to create a theme that withstands time and memory through generations and he will always be remembered.

[Big Magilla]

For more than forty years my favorite living composer. I don't have one now. A great, great loss.

[mlrg]

A great composer!

RIP