James Horner Lost in Plane Crash

Prolific and talented film score composer James Horner has been killed, when the private plane he was piloting crashed in Southern California.

Horner was easily one of the most popular and acclaimed composers of his generation, having won the Academy Award for Titanic, the best selling motion picture soundtrack of all time. Horner was especially well known by science fiction fans, having scored Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (as well as Star Trek III: The Search For Spock), and James Cameron's Aliens, for my money one of the greatest, most impactful soundtracks ever recorded. Movie trailers often use temporary music from previously released films, and for about ten years, it seemed the trailer for every action movie out there borrowed Horner's Aliens score, an adrenaline-fueled theme of hammered steel and relentlessly threatening brass and strings. It's the reason you feel like you're going to have a heart attack during Aliens' last twenty minutes.

Horner also scored 48 Hours, Field of Dreams, The Rocketeer, Braveheart, Glory, Legends of the Fall, Apollo 13, A Beautiful Mind, The Amazing Spider-Man, The Perfect Storm, and for frequent collaborator James Cameron, Avatar. He has 156 composer credits on the imdb. 

At 61, Horner leaves behind a rich legacy of music that helped shape the tone and mood of modern cinema.