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JOHN BARRY

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Entertainers, Entertainers B, Entertainers J

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BIOGRAPHICAL DETAILS

Full Name: John Barry Prendergast

Description: Composer, conductor

Known For: Lead composer, was From Russia with Love (1963).

Instruments: Piano

Music Styles: Popular, Classical

Location: United Kingdom

Date Born: 3rd November 1933
Location Born: York, United Kingdom

Date Died: 30th January 2011
Location Died: Oyster Bay, United States of America
Cause Of Death: Heart attack

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CONTACT DETAILS
Web Site:John Barry at the Songwriters Hall of Fame

Other Links: See below:

YOUTUBE VIDEO

BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILE

John Barry, OBE

John Barry Prendergast, OBE (3 November 1933 – 30 January 2011) was an English composer and conductor of film music. He composed the soundtracks for 11 of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, and also arranged and performed the “James Bond Theme” to the first film in the series, 1962’s Dr. No. He wrote the scores to the award winning films Midnight Cowboy, Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, in a career spanning over 50 years. In 1999 he was appointed OBE at Buckingham Palace for services to music.

Born in York, Barry spent his early years working in cinemas owned by his father. During his national service with the British Army in Cyprus, Barry began performing as a musician after learning to play the trumpet. Upon completing his national service, he formed his own band in 1957, The John Barry Seven. He later developed an interest in composing and arranging music, making his début for television in 1958. He came to the notice of the makers of the first James Bond film Dr. No, who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. This started a successful association between Barry and Eon Productions which lasted for 25 years.

He received many awards for his work, including five Academy Awards; two for Born Free, and one each for The Lion in Winter (for which he also won the first BAFTA Award for Best Film Music), Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa (both of which also won him Grammy Awards). He also received ten Golden Globe Award nominations, winning once for Best Original Score for Out of Africa in 1986. Barry completed his last film score, Enigma, in 2001 and recorded the successful album Eternal Echoes the same year. He then concentrated chiefly on live performances and co-wrote the music to the musical Brighton Rock in 2004 alongside Don Black. He was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts in 2005. Barry was married four times and had four children. He moved to the United States in 1975 and lived there for the remainder of his life until his death in 2011.

Barry was born John Barry Prendergast, in York, England, and was the son of an English mother and an Irish father. His mother was a classical pianist. His father, John Xavier “Jack” Prendergast, from Cork, was a projectionist during the silent film era, who later owned a chain of cinemas across northern England. As a result of his father’s work, Barry was raised in and around cinemas in northern England and he later stated that his childhood background of being brought up in the theatres owned by his father influenced his musical tastes and interests as a result. Barry was educated at St Peter’s School, York, and also received composition lessons from Francis Jackson, Organist of York Minster.

Career

Serving in the British Army, Barry spent his national service playing the trumpet. After his army service, he took a correspondence course (with jazz composer Bill Russo) and working as an arranger for the Jack Parnell and Ted Heath’s Orchestra, he formed his own band in 1957, the John Barry Seven, with whom he had some hit records on EMI’s Columbia label, including “Hit and Miss”, the theme tune he composed for the BBC’s Juke Box Jury programme, a cover of the Johnny Smith song “Walk Don’t Run”, and a cover of the theme for the United Artists western The Magnificent Seven. By 1959 Barry was gaining commissions to arrange music for other acts, starting with a young trio on Decca, coincidentally called the Three Barry Sisters, though unrelated both to Barry and the more famous Barry Sisters duo in America.The career breakthrough for Barry was the BBC television series Drumbeat, when he appeared with the John Barry Seven. He was employed by EMI from 1959 until 1962 arranging orchestral accompaniment for the company’s singers, including Adam Faith; he also composed songs (along with Les Vandyke) and scores for films in which Faith was featured. When Faith made his first film, Beat Girl (1960), Barry composed, arranged and conducted the score, his first. His music was later released as the UK’s first soundtrack album. Barry also composed the music for another Faith film, Never Let Go (also 1960), orchestrated the score for Mix Me a Person (1962), and composed, arranged and conducted the score for The Amorous Prawn (also 1962). In 1962, Barry transferred to Ember Records, where he produced albums as well as arranging them.

These achievements caught the attention of the producers of a new film called Dr. No (1962) who were dissatisfied with a theme for James Bond given to them by Monty Norman. Barry was hired and the result was one of the most famous signature tunes in film history, the “James Bond Theme”. (Credit goes to Monty Norman, see here.) When the producers of the Bond series engaged Lionel Bart to score the next James Bond film From Russia with Love (1963), they discovered that Bart could neither read nor write music. Though Bart wrote a title song for the film, the producers remembered Barry’s arrangement of the James Bond Theme and his composing and arranging for several films with Adam Faith. Lionel Bart also recommended Barry to producer Stanley Baker for his film Zulu (1964). Bart and Barry worked together in the film Man in the Middle.

This was the turning point for Barry, and he subsequently won five Academy Awards and four Grammy Awards, with scores for, among others, Born Free (1966), The Lion in Winter (1968), Midnight Cowboy (1969) for which he did not receive an on-screen credit. and Somewhere in Time (1980).

Barry was often cited as having had a distinct style which concentrated on lush strings and extensive use of brass. However he was also an innovator, being one of the first to employ synthesizers in a film score (On Her Majesty’s Secret Service, also 1969), and to make wide use of pop artists and songs in Midnight Cowboy. Because Barry provided not just the main title theme but the complete soundtrack score, his music often enhanced the critical reception of a film, notably in Midnight Cowboy, the first remake of King Kong (1976), Out of Africa (1985), and Dances with Wolves (1990). Barry would often watch films and would note down with pen and paper what worked or what did not.

Barry composed the theme for the TV series The Persuaders! (1971), also known as The Unlucky Heroes, in which Tony Curtis and Roger Moore were paired as rich playboys solving crimes. Other music for the series was composed by Ken Thorne. The theme was a hit single in some European countries. The instrumental recording features the Cimbalom (which Barry also used for The Ipcress File (1965) and other themes) and Moog synthesizers. Barry also wrote the scores to a number of musicals, including Passion Flower Hotel (lyrics by Trevor Peacock), the successful West End show Billy (lyrics by Don Black) and two major Broadway flops, The Little Prince and the Aviator and Lolita, My Love, the latter with Alan Jay Lerner as lyricist.

In 2001, the University of York conferred an honorary degree on Barry, and in 2002 he was named an Honorary Freeman of the City of York.

During 2006, Barry was the executive producer on an album entitled Here’s to the Heroes by the Australian ensemble The Ten Tenors. The album features a number of songs Barry wrote in collaboration with his lyricist friend, Don Black. Barry and Black also composed one of the songs on Shirley Bassey’s 2009 album, The Performance. The song, entitled “Our Time Is Now”, is the first written by the duo for Bassey since “Diamonds Are Forever”.

James Bond series

After the success of Dr. No, Barry was hired to compose and perform eleven of the next fourteen James Bond films (Monty Norman is legally recognised as the composer of the “James Bond Theme”).

In his tenure with the film series, Barry’s music, variously brassy and moody, achieved very wide appeal. For From Russia with Love he composed “007”, an alternative James Bond signature theme, which is featured in four other Bond films (Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever and Moonraker). The theme “Stalking”, for the teaser sequence of From Russia with Love, was covered by colleague Marvin Hamlisch for The Spy Who Loved Me (1977). (The music and lyrics for From Russia with Love’s title song were written by Lionel Bart, whose musical theatre credits included Oliver!) Barry also contributed indirectly to the soundtrack of the spoof version of Casino Royale (1967): his Born Free theme appears briefly in the opening sequence.

Personal life

Barry was married four times. His first three marriages, to Barbara Pickard (1959–63), Jane Birkin (1965–68), and Jane Sidey (1969–78) all ended in divorce. He was married to Laurie from 1978 until his death. The couple had a son, Jonpatrick. Barry had three daughters, Suzanne (Susie) with his first wife, Barbara, Kate with his second wife, Jane, and Sian from a relationship with Ulla Larson between the first two marriages. Suzy Barry is the mother of his two granddaughters, Phoebe and Florence Ingleby.

In 1975 Barry moved to California. A British judge later accused him of emigrating to avoid paying £134,000 due the Inland Revenue. The matter was resolved in the late 1980s and Barry was able to return to the UK. He subsequently lived for many years in the United States, mainly in Oyster Bay, New York, in Centre Island on Long Island, from 1980.

Barry suffered a rupture of the oesophagus in 1988, following a toxic reaction to a health tonic he had consumed. The incident rendered him unable to work for two years and left him vulnerable to pneumonia.

Barry died of a heart attack on 30 January 2011 at his Oyster Bay home, aged 77. He is survived by Laurie, his wife of 33 years, and by his four children and five grandchildren.

A memorial concert took place on 20 June 2011 at the Royal Albert Hall in London where the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Shirley Bassey, Rumer, David Arnold, Wynne Evans and others performed Barry’s music. Sir George Martin, Sir Michael Parkinson, Don Black, Timothy Dalton and others also contributed to the celebration of his life and work. The event was sponsored by the Royal College of Music through a grant by the Broccoli Foundation. See links to four videos below.

John Barry died suddenly from a heart attack on 30 January 2011. Aged 77.

Film scores include.

Dr. No (1962)
From Russia with Love (1963)
Thunderball (1965)
You Only Live Twice (1967)
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1969)
Diamonds Are Forever (1971)
The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)
Moonraker (1979)
Octopussy (1983)
A View to a Kill (1985)
The Living Daylights (1987)
Zulu (1964)
Seance on a Wet Afternoon (1965)
The Knack …and How to Get It (1965)
King Rat (1965)
The IPCRESS File (1965)
Born Free (1966)
The Whisperers (1967)
Deadfall (1968)
The Lion in Winter (1968)
Midnight Cowboy (1969)
Walkabout (1971)
The Last Valley (1971)
Mary, Queen of Scots (1971)
Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland (1972)
The Tamarind Seed (1974)
The Dove (1974)
King Kong (1976)
Robin and Marian (1976)
The Deep (1977)
First Love (1977)
Game Of Death (1978)
Hanover Street (1979)
The Black Hole (1979)
Somewhere in Time (1980)
Inside Moves (1980)
Night Games (1980)
Raise the Titanic (1981)
Legend of the Lone Ranger (1981)
Body Heat (1981)
Frances (1982)
High Road to China (1983)
The Cotton Club (1984)
Until September (1984)
Jagged Edge (1985)
Out of Africa (1985)
Howard the Duck (1986)
My Sister’s Keeper (1986)
The Golden Child (1986)
Hearts of Fire (1987)
Masquerade (1988)
Dances with Wolves (1990)
Chaplin (1992)
Ruby Cairo (1992)
Indecent Proposal (1993)
The Specialist (1994)
Cry, The Beloved Country (1995)
Across The Sea of Time (1995)
The Scarlet Letter (1995)
Mercury Rising (1998)
Playing By Heart (1998)
Enigma (2001)

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