Maurice Jarre

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Composer Born Sept. 13, 1924 in Lyon, France

Maurice Jarre was a French-born composer considered to be one of the giants of 20th century film music. He is best known for his powerfully evocative Oscar-winning scores for the David Lean epics "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "Doctor Zhivago" (1965) and "A Passage to India" (1984).

His film career spanned five decades, beginning with music compositions for short films in France in the early 1950s. His musical repertoire grew to include more than 170 film and television scores, including those for "The Longest Day," "The Year of Living Dangerously," "Ghost," "Witness," "Gorillas in the Mist," "Fatal Attraction" and "Dead Poets Society."

Jarre worked with the most important directors in 20th century Western cinema. Among them are Rene Clement ("Is Paris Burning?"), John Frankenheimer ("Grand Prix"), Alfred Hitchcock ("Topaz"), John Huston ("The Man Who Would Be King"), Elia Kazan ("The Last Tycoon"), Volker Schlondorff ("The Tin Drum") and Franco Zeffirelli (the TV miniseries "Jesus of Nazareth").

Music innovations played key roles in Jarre's techniques and compositions. He was a pioneer of electronic music use in films. He was also known for his astute use of ethnic instruments to evoke exotic locales. The music, Jarre told The Times in 1966, "must give the film an added dimension. It must say things not seen on the screen or heard in the dialogue. This can be done without destroying the dramatic balance. It is not easy, of course, and we do not always succeed. But it is our goal."

— Dennis McLellan in the Los Angeles Times March 31, 2009

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