Williams, John Towner (1932- )

US film composer and conductor. He has written the scores for more than 75 films, including Jaws (1975), the Star Wars series (1977-99), ET The Extraterrestrial (1982), and Schindler's List (1993), as well as the theme music for four Olympic Games. Many of his scores are for films directed by Steven Spielberg. He has won five Academy Awards and several Grammies over the course of his career.

Born in New York City, he became conductor of the Boston Pops orchestra in 1980, retiring from that post in 1993 to devote his time to composing. He has also written the scores to Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977), the Indiana Jones series (1981-89), Born on the Fourth of July (1989), JFK (1991), Jurassic Park (1993), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

Other films include Home Alone (1990), Home Alone 2: Lost in New York (1992), Sabrina (1995), Sleepers (1996), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Angela's Ashes (1999), and The Patriot (2000).