RIP Maurice Jarre (1924-2009)

'Dr. Zhivago' composer dies at 84...

Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre, who scored movies including Doctor Zhivago and "Lawrence of Arabia " among others, died Sunday from cancer in Los Angeles. He was 84.

Jarre enjoyed an illustrious career, working with Hollywood directing legends including John Huston Alfred Hitchcock, (Topaz) and, most notably, David Lean.

Jarre won Oscars in 1963 and 1966 for his collaborations on the Lean movies "Arabia" and "Zhivago".





Fellow French composer Alexandre Desplat (The Curious Case of Benjamin Button), who interviewed Jarre last month, said: "Maurice was an immense artist, an incredible symphonist, a magician of the melody and a benevolent human being."

He then mustered a further six Oscar nominations but his third award came once again through a further collaboration with Lean on A Passage to India.

He then swapped orchestral composition to become a pioneer of electronic scoring, working on the music for, among others, "Ghost," "Witness ," "Dead Poets Society" "No Way Out" and "Fatal Attraction". Among his work my personal favorite is School Ties.

His final movie composition was for the 2000 film "I Dreamed of Africa."