Composer John Williams to Receive AFI Life Achievement Award

Oscar-winning composer John Williams (“Jaws”, “Star Wars”, “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial”, “Schindler’s List”) was named the 44th AFI Life Achievement Award recipient Thursday by the American Film Institute Board of Trustees. Before him, the tribute went to Jane Fonda, the eighth woman to receive the AFI Life Achievement honor. He will be honored at a June 9 gala in Los Angeles that will be taped to air on TNT, with an encore presentation on its TCM sister network.

Early his career, Williams composed music for more than 200 TV films and series including “Lost in Space”.

“John Williams has written the soundtrack to our lives”, said Sir Howard Stringer, Chair, AFI Board of Trustees in a statement. The scores he composed for movies like Star Wars and Jaws were a few of the most influential things that anyone had heard in a movie for decades-at least until 2010 when Hans Zimmer introduced that bad Inception noise that we can’t get away from. He is known for frequently collaborating with filmmaker Steven Spielberg.

Williams is composing the score for the highly anticipated “Star Wars” seventh instalment, “The Force Awakens”, out in theatres in December.

Three of Williams’ scores landed on AFI’s 100 Years of Film Scores – a list of the 25 greatest American film scores of all time – including Star Wars at No. 1. Williams certainly deserves it, as he has been a composer for over 50 years working on so many classic films, earning 49 Oscar nominations and 5 wins over the years.

The New York native served as music director of the Boston Pops Orchestra for 14 seasons and remains its conductor laureate.

The institute has typically honoured high-profile actors and directors with the award, including Alfred Hitchcock, Elizabeth Taylor, Martin Scorsese, Meryl Streep and last year’s honouree, Steve Martin.