Final Thesis - John Williams - ScholarsArchive at Oregon State ...

networking, he built a friendship with Bernard Herrmann, and ultimately became a
staff arranger at Columbia at the age of 24. Also, as a studio pianist, he performed on
film scores by composers such as Jerry Goldsmith, Elmer Bernstein and Henry
Mancini ("John Williams" Wiki). The next step in his composition career was
working as pianist, arranger, and eventually orchestrator during the Golden Age of
Hollywood for composer greats such as Bernard Herrmann, Alfred Newman, Lionel
Newman, Dimitri Tiomkin, Franz Waxman, Henry Mancini, and André Previn who
styles ultimately helped form John William’s unique approach and style in film
music. During the 1960s, he finally received the opportunity to compose for various
television programs such as “Gilligan’s Island,” “Lost in Space,” “Land of the Giants,”
and “Time Tunnel”(Wheeler). With these experiences, his exposure to the industry,
and the encouragement of Newman, Williams made the transition into film
composition.
One of his first major jobs was scoring the film How to Steal a Million starring
Audrey Hepburn and Peter O’Toole. Following this project, his compositions
continued gaining him attention and just a few years later he received his first
Academy Award nomination for Valley of the Dolls, and won his first Academy
Award in 1972 for his adaptation of Fiddler on the Roof. Following some of these
early comedy film successes, he completed scores for several popular disaster films
such as The Poseidon Adventure and The Towering Inferno. Near the end of the 60s
he composed the Americana-style score for The Reivers, which caught the attention
of a young director named Steven Spielberg who was getting ready for his first
feature film The Sugarland Express ("John Williams" Wiki). After establishing their
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