Maurice Jarre

Maurice Jarre ranks among the finest of film composers with a career that began in France in the 1950s and led to the pinnacles of success in Hollywood and around the world. Nominated for nine Academy Awards, he won three, each for a David Lean epic: 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962), 'Doctor Zhivago' (1965) and 'A Passage to India' (1984). His love theme for 'Doctor Zhivago', called 'Lara's Theme', with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster, became a hit record for the Ray Conniff Singers, Connie Francis, Andy Williams and others. A theme he wrote for Lean's 1970 film 'Ryan's Daughter', with lyrics by Mack David and Mike Curb, became the song 'It Was a Good Time' recorded by Liza Minnelli. Born in Lyon, France, Jarre attended the Sorbonne to study engineering but he quit in favour of the Conservatoire de Paris where he studied composition and harmony. After a stint as director of Théâtre National Populaire, he turned to the cinema with music for short films and documentaries. His first feature film score was for a Georges Franju drama titled 'Head Against the Wall' in 1959 and he did several more until Hollywood director Richard Fleischer signed him for his 1960 crime drama 'Crack in the Mirror' starring Orson Welles and Juliette Gréco. He scored the 1962 war epic 'The Longest Day' and then came the David Lean films. Major films with his sweeping, melodic cues also include John Frankenheimer's 'The Train' (1964) and 'Grand Prix' (1966), René Clement's 'Is Paris Burning' (1966), Richard Brooks's 'The Professionals' (1966), Ronald Neame's 'Gambit' (1966), Karel Reisz's 'Isadora' (1968), Alfred Hitchcock's 'Topaz' (1969), John Huston's 'The Man Who Would Be King' (1975), Clint Eastwood's 'Firefox' (1982), Peter Weir's 'The Year of Living Dangerously' (1982) and 'Mosquito Coast' (1986), and Adrian Lyne's 'Fatal Attraction' (1987) and 'Jacob's Ladder' (1990). Jarre's music for television productions included the mini-series 'Shogun' (1980) and 'The Murder of Mary Phagan' (1988) and Jon Avnet's TV movie 'Uprising' (2001), his final work for the screen. His last feature film score was for Hugh Hudson's 'I Dreamed of Africa' in 2000. He died in Los Angeles from cancer aged 84.

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