Score(movies) In Peace: James Horner

It was reported yesterday that a plane belonging to Oscar winning composer James Horner had crashed. The pilot was badly burned in the ensuing fire and has yet to be identified but many outlets are presuming the movie music maestro has sadly passed. The Los Angeles native had Hollywood in his blood as father Harry worked as a set designer and part-time art director. Starting on the piano at age 5, Horner would be a student of music growing up and attend the University of Southern California. Like many future Hollywood heavyweights, Horner scored his first work for schlock master Roger Corman with the rousing Battle Beyond the Stars leading to Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan, Commando, Red Heat, Aliens, Willow, The Rocketeer and Troy being among many others. While Horner and James Cameron clashed on Aliens due to the compressed time frame, they reteamed for the award winning and huge financial monster that was Titanic and again on Cameron's next film 10 years later, Avatar. In 1995, Horner scored a staggering six films including Braveheart and Apollo 13. Horner spent a full 2 years working on 2009's Avatar and took no other projects, citing it as his most difficult gig to date.  An avid pilot as well as musician, Horner amassed 10 Academy Award nominations winning twice along with wins at the Golden Globes, Satellite and Saturn Awards as nominations from the British Academy Film Awards.