Maurice Jarre 1924-2009

The Vault marks the passing last Sunday of one of the world's most prolific and acclaimed film composers, Maurice Jarre, whose horror credits included Eyes Without a Face (1960), Dreamscape (1984), The Bride (1985) and Jacob's Ladder (1990).

Eventually composing for movies in six different decades, Jarre began his career in his native France, where one of his early scores was for the aforementioned Eyes Without a Face, directed by Georges Franju.

He made a major splash in Hollywood in 1962 with his epic score for Lawrence of Arabia, which netted him his first of three Academy Awards. Perhaps his most famous score, for Dr. Zhivago, landed him the second one three years later. He also won in 1985 for A Passage to India, and was nominated six other times, most recently in 1991 for his score for Ghost.

Jarre was also honored with two BAFTAs, for Witness (1986) and Dead Poets Society (1989); four Golden Globes, for scores that included Gorillas in the Mist (1988) and A Walk in the Clouds (1996); and a Grammy for his Zhivago score.

Among his many other scores were The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Firefox (1982), Top Secret! (1984), Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985), Enemy Mine (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986) and Fatal Attraction (1987). He was also responsible for the music to the TV miniseries Shogun (1980), and my personal favorite of his, the immensely stirring theme to Franco Zefferelli's Jesus of Nazareth (1977).