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More Hans Zimmer Bios & Profiles

 

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Biography #2 (for The Last Samurai)

The Last Samurai marks the 100th feature film score for multi-talented composer Hans Zimmer. Zimmer won an Academy Award for Best Original Score for Disney's The Lion King, as well as a Golden Globe, two Grammys, and a Tony Award (for the film's subsequent Broadway incarnation). For his outstanding score for Ridley Scott's Gladiator, he won the Golden Globe and Broadcast Film Critics Award and received another Oscar nomination. The album sold 3,000,000 units worldwide and spawned a follow-up album, Gladiator: More Music From the Motion Picture. The acclaimed composer also collected another 5 Academy nominations for his music on Rain Man, As Good As It Gets, The Thin Red Line, The Preacher's Wife and The Prince of Egypt.

Among his diverse credits are scores for Driving Miss Daisy, Mission: Impossible 2, The Road To El Dorado, Green Card, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Crimson Tide, The Rock, Pearl Harbor and most recently, Ridley Scott's Matchstick Men.

Long recognized as one of Hollywood's most innovative musical talents, the German-born artist first achieved success in the pop music world as a member of The Buggles. The group's 1982 worldwide hit single, Video Killed the Radio Star, helped usher in a new era of global entertainment as the first music video aired on MTV. That same year, Zimmer entered the realm of film music through a collaboration with famed composer Stanley Meyers (The Deer Hunter) on the acclaimed drama Moonlighting. He continued his association with Meyers on such projects as Stephen Frears' My Beautiful Launderette and Nicholas Roeg's Insignificance, learning the power of combining modern synthesized percussion beats with the melodies of classical music. After 15 collaborations with Meyers, Zimmer began his solo composing career with 1988's A World Apart.

He went on to work with such respected filmmakers as Ron Howard (Backdraft), Peter Weir (Green Card), Mike Nichols (Regarding Henry), John Schlesinger (Pacific Heights), James L. Brooks (As Good As It Gets, I'll Do Anything), John Boorman (Beyond Rangoon) and Mimi Leder (The Peacemaker). He is a favorite of directors Penny Marshall (A League of Their Own, Riding in Cars With Boys, Renaissance Man) and brothers Ridley Scott (Hannibal, Thelma & Louise, Black Rain, Black Hawk Down, Gladiator) and Tony Scott (Days of Thunder, Crimson Tide, True Romance, The Fan).

Zimmer continues to break ground in the world of film music. A pioneer in the use of digital synthesizers, electronic keyboards and the latest computer technology, he is considered the father of integrating electronic sound with traditional orchestral arrangements. One of his recent achievements is heard on the Hannibal score, which utilized 28 celli and basses to create an opera written especially for the film. The soundtrack recording topped Billboard's Classical Crossover Chart as well as the Top Soundtrack Chart.

Bio courtesy Warner Bros. for "The Last Samurai" (02-Dec-2003)