Movie Mogul.co.uk For the Love of Film Blog

The creator of iconic film scores as diverse as the expansive orchestrated theme from Born Free and introvert jarring insistence of the score from Midnight Cowboy which epitomised the scope of his ability.

Born in Yorkshire he was a flamboyant figure who enjoyed the celebrity status that writing 11 scores for the Bond films, developing the original theme by Monty Norman in the first Bond, 'Dr No,' Barry continued to deliver on another 10 including 'Goldfinger' and 'You Only Live Twice'. Happily adopting the lifestyle of 'Swinging Sixties' he shared a Knightsbridge flat with Michael Caine and Terence Stamp in the sixties and was briefly married to Jane Birkin.

 

He won Oscars for his work on 'Born Free' in 1966, 'Out of Africa' in 1985 and the Kevin Costner epic, 'Dances with Wolves' in 1990. Barry appeared self-effacing, referring to his hugely successful 'Bond' scores in the New York Times as "...million dollar Micky Mouse music".

 

Plying his trade and living in the United States for a great part of his life, he died in New York aged 77.