Maurice Jarre

Maurice-Alexis Jarre (French pronunciation: [mɔʁis alɛksi ʒaʁ]; 13 September 1924 – 28 March 2009) was a French composer and conductor. Although he composed several concert works, Jarre is best known for his film scores, particularly for his collaborations with film director David Lean. Jarre composed the scores to all of Lean's films from Lawrence of Arabia (1962) to A Passage to India (1984). He was nominated for nine Academy Awards, winning three in the Best Original Score category for Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago (1965), and A Passage to India, all of which were directed by Lean.

Notable scores for other directors included Eyes Without a Face (1959), The Longest Day (1962), The Train (1964), The Collector (1965), Grand Prix (1966), The Man Who Would Be King (1975), Mohammad, Messenger of God (1976), Jesus of Nazareth (1977), Lion of the Desert (1981), The Year of Living Dangerously (1982), Witness (1985), The Mosquito Coast (1986), Fatal Attraction (1987), Gorillas in the Mist (1988), Dead Poets Society (1989), Prancer (1989), and Ghost (1990). He worked with such directors as John Frankenheimer, Peter Weir, Georges Franju, John Huston, Adrian Lyne, Luchino Visconti, Alfred Hitchcock, Elia Kazan, and Volker Schlöndorff.

Jarre also won four Golden Globes, three BAFTA Awards, a Grammy Award, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. Three of his compositions spent a total of 42 weeks on the UK singles chart; the biggest hit was "Somewhere My Love" (to his tune "Lara's Theme", with lyrics by Paul Francis Webster) performed by the Mike Sammes Singers, which reached Number 14 in 1966 and spent 38 weeks on the chart.

He was the father of musician Jean-Michel Jarre and the adopted father of screenwriter Kevin Jarre.