The word ‘legend’ is bandied around far too casually these days, but when that word is in the nearby vicinity of John Williams, somehow it doesn’t seem enough. With his 52nd Academy Award nomination for The Rise of Skywalker in the bag, he not only breaks his own record as the most Oscar nominated person alive, but he now trails Walt Disney by just 7 (Uncle Walt got 59).
Williams received his first Oscar nomination back in 1968 for his work on Mark Robson’s Valley of the Dolls. Four years later, the composer took home his first golden statuette for the Fiddler on the Roof score.
Other Oscar-winning scores by Williams include those for Schindler’s List, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, Star Wars and Jaws. Though the composer beat out the competition for best score in 1978 with the music in the first Star Wars film, further work for the sci-fi franchise has yet to take home the prize.
Unbelievable that he didn’t win for such scores as Superman, Raiders of the Lost Ark, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom and The Phantom Menace, but could Williams grab a long-overdue (it’s been 25 long years since Schindler’s List in 1995) sixth award for Rise? We’ll find out on 9th February when the Academy Awards take place in LA.
