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Obituaries
Maurice Jarre dies
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 31 March 2009
Film composer Maurice Jarre has died in Los Angeles at the age of eighty-four. He had been suffering from cancer.
Born in Lyon, France, in 1924, he only began studying music at a late age, and initially enrolled at the Sorbonne’s school of engineering, later turning his back on that, against his father’s wishes, to attend the Conservatoire to study composition, harmony and percussion. He wrote his first film score in 1951, but did not achieve a breakthrough until 1962, when he wrote the score for David Lean’s ‘Lawrence Of Arabia’ and was rewarded with an Oscar. He went on to compose music for more than 150 films and continued his relationship with the work of David Lean, composing music for ‘Doctor Zhivago’ and ‘A Passage To India’, which won him two more Oscars. He was also Oscar nominated on number of other occasions, for his scores for ‘Dead Poets Society’, ‘Gorillas In The Mist’ and ‘Witness’, amongst others.
Jarre also earned a star on Hollywood’s walk of fame, two Baftas, a Grammy and four Golden Globes during the course of his career, and put his music to the work of some of cinema’s greatest directors, amongst them the aforementioned David Lean, Alfred Hitchcock, and John Huston. He also wrote music for theatre, ballet, and TV, most notably for 1970s mini-series ‘Jesus Of Nazareth’.
At one of his final public appearances, he collected a lifetime achievement award from the Berlin Film Festival. The event’s director, Dieter Kosslick, said at the time: “Film composers often are in the shadows of great directors and acting stars. It’s different with Maurice Jarre – the music of ‘Doctor Zhivago’, like much of his work, is world-famous and remains unforgettable in cinema history”.
Maurice Jarre is survived by his two sons, composer and electronic music star Jean-Michel Jarre, and Hollywood screenwriter Kevin Jarre, and his daughter, Stephanie Jarre.
