(b York, 3 Nov 1933). English composer. He left school at 15 and gained early film experience as a projectionist in his father's cinemas in York. Through hearing film scores by established Hollywood composers such as Steiner, Korngold, Waxman, Newman and North, he determined upon a career as a film composer. He played the trumpet in a local band, and later in the army during his National Service (1952–5). He studied with Francis Jackson, organist of York Minster, and by correspondence with Joseph Schillinger and William Russo, gaining experience by arranging for several bands. In 1957 he formed John Barry and the Seven (later becoming the John Barry Seven, which toured until early 1966), and was musical director for Adam Faith on several hit songs, including What do you want (1959). The Seven's own Hit and Miss (1960) was taken up as the theme to the BBC's popular show ‘Juke Box Jury’. During this period Barry wrote, performed and recorded pop music, making his first BBC television broadcast (on ‘Six-Five Special’) in 1957. He then worked in managerial capacities with various record companies, including EMI and the independent Ember International. Following his first jazz inflected rock and roll film score for Beat Girl (1959), featuring Adam Faith, he quickly became established, notably for his fusion of rock, pop and jazz in the numerous James Bond films, beginning with his arrangement of the Bond theme for Dr No (1962; score composed by Monty Norman) and concluding with his score for The Living Daylights (1987).
In between these overtly commercial films he frequently worked with the British director Bryan Forbes, contributing jazz numbers to The L-Shaped Room (1962), followed by collaborations on Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964), King Rat (1965), The Wrong Box (1966), The Whisperers (1967) and Deadfall (1968), in which Barry himself appears conducting the LPO in a guitar concerto (Romance for guitar and orchestra), written to accompany a robbery sequence. Over many years he has built a song-writing partnership with the lyricist Don Black, with whom he collaborated on the musical Billy, after the novel Billy Liar by Keith Waterhouse. Its fantasy sequences gave full range to Barry's stylistic versatility and the show ran successfully at Drury Lane from May 1974 with Michael Crawford in the title role. When not orchestrating his own music, Barry has worked with several orchestrators including Bobby Richards, Al Woodbury and Greig McRitchie. He moved to America in 1975, first to Los Angeles and then New York (1980).
His stylistic versatility has enabled him to write for every genre of feature film – adventure, action, comedy, drama, romance and thriller – as well as for television. Although finding many commissions artistically rewarding, he has expressed candid views on some of his work, characterizing the James Bond scores as big-budget ‘Mickey-Mouse’ music that gives the public what it wants, and, despite being the recipient of two Academy Awards for Born Free (1966), admitting that he scored it as a satire on a sentimental Disney picture. Some commentators have identified stylistic fingerprints in whatever Barry writes, citing the recurrent use of typical instrumental textures (for example, xylophone with strings and high flute in his ‘Bond’ movies), even of individual instruments. His skill, however, equips him to assume specific classical and popular styles, as in his imitation of Duke Ellington for The Cotton Club (1984), or the traditional ‘western’ symphonic score for Dances with Wolves (1990). Barry has won five Academy Awards: Born Free (1966; Best Score and Best Song), The Lion in Winter (1968), Out of Africa (1985) and Dances with Wolves (1990).
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Film scores: Beat Girl, 1959; Never Let Go, 1960; Mix Me a Person, 1962; The L-Shaped Room, 1962; The Amorous Prawn, 1962; Dr No, 1962; They All Died Laughing, 1963; The Party's Over, 1963; From Russia With Love, 1963; Zulu, 1963; Goldfinger, 1964; A Jolly Bad Fellow, 1964; Séance on a Wet Afternoon, 1964; Man in the Middle, 1964; The Ipcress File, 1965; King Rat, 1965; Thunderball, 1965; Mister Moses, 1965; The Knack … and How to Get It, 1965; The Quiller Memorandum, 1966; Born Free, 1966; Four in the Morning, 1966; Dutchman, 1966; The Chase, 1966; The Wrong Box, 1966; The Whisperers, 1967; You Only Live Twice, 1967; Petulia, 1968; The Lion in Winter, 1968; Deadfall, 1968; Boom!, 1968; Midnight Cowboy, 1969; On Her Majesty's Secret Service, 1969; The Appointment, 1969 |
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Monte Walsh, 1970; The Last Valley, 1971; Walkabout, 1971; They Might Be Giants, 1971; Murphy's War, 1971; Mary, Queen of Scots, 1971; Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, 1972; Follow Me, 1972; Diamonds Are Forever, 1972; The Tamarind Seed, 1973; A Doll's House, 1973; The Man with the Golden Gun, 1975; The Dove, 1975; The Day of the Locust, 1975; King Kong, 1976; Robin and Marian, 1976; The Deep, 1977; The White Buffalo, 1977; First Love, 1977; The Betsy, 1978; Game of Death, 1978; Moonraker, 1979; The Black Hole, 1979; Starcrash, 1979; Hanover Street, 1979 |
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Raise the Titanic!, 1980; Somewhere in Time, 1980; Night Games, 1980; Murder by Phone, 1980; Inside Moves, 1980; Superman 2, 1980; Touched By Love, 1980; Body Heat, 1981; The Legend of the Lone Ranger, 1981; Hammett, 1982; Frances, 1982; Octopussy, 1983; High Road to China, 1983; The Golden Seal, 1983; Until September, 1984; Mike's Murder, 1984; The Cotton Club, 1984; Jagged Edge, 1985; A View to a Kill, 1985; Out of Africa, 1985; Howard the Duck, 1986; Peggy Sue Got Married, 1986; The Golden Child, 1986; My Sister's Keeper, 1986; The Living Daylights, 1987; Hearts of Fire, 1987; Masquerade, 1988; A Killing Affair, 1988 |
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Dances with Wolves, 1990; John Barry – Moviola, 1992; Chaplin, 1992; Indecent Proposal, 1993; My Life, 1993; Ruby Cairo, 1993; The Specialist, 1994; The Scarlet Letter, 1995; Cry the Beloved Country, 1995; Across the Sea of Time, 1995; Swept from the Sea, 1997; Mercury Rising, 1998 |
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Television scores: Elizabeth Taylor in London, 1963; The Persuaders!, 1971; The Glass Menagerie, 1973; Love Among the Ruins, 1975; Eleanor and Franklin, 1976; Eleanor and Franklin: the White House Years, 1977; The Gathering, 1977; The War Between the Tates, 1977; Young Joe, the Forgotten Kennedy, 1977; Willa, 1979; The Corn is Green, 1979; Svengali, 1983; The Witness, 1992 |
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Other works incl. individual songs for films, television and radio signature tunes, music for television shows, short films and commercials |
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Stage: Passion Flower Hotel (musical, 2, T. Peacock; W. Mankowitz, after ‘Rosalind Erskine’), London, Prince of Wales', 24 Aug 1965; Lolita My Love, 1968; Billy (musical, 2, D. Black; I. La Frenais and D. Clements after K. Waterhouse and W. Hall: Billy Liar), London, Drury Lane, 1 May 1974 [incl. Some of us belong to the stars] |
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Orch: Americans (1976); The Beyondness of Things (1997) [music from rejected score to The Horse Whisperer, 1998] |
G. Leonard and P. Walker: ‘John Barry: the Early Years’, From Silents to Satellite, no.15 (1992), 20–40
J. Burlingame: ‘John Barry's Television Scores: an Overview’, From Silents to Satellite, no.16 (1993), 34–8
R.S. Brown: ‘Barry’, Overtones and Undertones (Berkeley, 1994), 322–33 [interview]
G. Leonard and P. Walker: ‘John Barry: into the Sixties’, Music from the Movies, no.5 (1994), 8–12
G. Leonard and P. Walker: ‘John Barry: into the Seventies’, Music from the Movies, no.6 (1994), 60–62
G. Leonard and P. Walker: ‘John Barry: the Seventies Part Two’, Music from the Movies, no.8 (1995), 84–6
G. Leonard and P. Walker: ‘John Barry: Into the Eighties’, Music from the Movies, no.12 (1996), 30–32
G. Leonard and P. Walker: ‘The Essential Musical Guide to James Bond’, Music from the Movies, no.18 (1997), 42–5
G. Leonard, P. Walker and G. Bramley: John Barry: a Life in Music (Bristol, 1998)
DAVID KERSHAW