hans zimmer

In the 1980s, Zimmer partnered with film composer Stanley Myers, a prolific film composer who composed scores for over sixty films. Zimmer and Myers co-founded the London-based Lillie Yard recording studio. Together, Myers and Zimmer worked on fusing the traditional orchestral sound with state-of-the-art electronics. Some of their first movies with this new sound include Moonlighting (1982), Success is the Best Revenge (1984), Insignificance (1985), and My Beautiful Launderette (1985). In 1986, Hans Zimmer joined David Byrne (1), a Scottish-American musician and artist, and Ryuichi Sakamoto, a Japanese musician, composer, producer, and actor, on their Oscar-winning score for The Last Emperor (1988).

Soon after The Last Emperor, Hans Zimmer began working on his own solo projects. During his solo career years, Zimmer experimented and combined the use of old and new musical technologies. His first solo work for composing a score was for Chris Menges’s film A World Apart (1988). However, Zimmer’s turning point in his career came later in that year when he was asked to compose a score for Barry Levinson’s film Rain Man (1988). In the score, Zimmer uses synthesizers mixed with steel drums. In a reflection on his greatest scores, Zimmer said that Rain Man was a road movie, so the music is full of guitars strings. Zimmer did not want the music to be bigger than the characters, so he kept the music contained and not overbearing. Since the Raymond character saw the world as different from everyone else, Zimmer wanted to compose his own music for a world that does not exist, like in Raymond’s mind. Zimmer’s score was nominated for an Academy Award for Rain Man in 1989.

A year after composing Rain Man, Hans Zimmer was asked to compose a score for Bruce Beresford's Driving Miss Daisy (1989), which won an Oscar for Best Picture. Driving Miss Daisy’s instrumentation consisted only of synthesizers and samplers, which were all done electronically by Hans Zimmer. Zimmer won a Grammy Award for Driving Miss Daisy in 1991.

In 1994, Zimmer won his biggest commercial hit for Disney’s The Lion King (1994). Zimmer wanted to go to South Africa himself to record the soundtrack for The Lion King but could not because he had a police record in South Africa for doing 'subversive' movies. The Lion King soundtrack won numerous awards, including an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and two Grammys. His soundtrack was then adapted for the Broadway Musical, which won the Tony for Best Musical in 1998.

After the success of The Lion King, Hans Zimmer wrote numerous film scores. One of his hardest compositions was for The Thin Red Line (1998). In an interview, Zimmer said that Terrence Malick, the director, wanted the music before he started filming, so Zimmer had recorded six and a half hours of music.

The 21st century was the biggest mark on Hans Zimmer’s career. He composed film scores for blockbuster hits such as Gladiator (2000), Hannibal (2001), The Last Samurai (2003), and collaborated with Robbie Williams on the song "A Man For All Seasons", which is played during the main title sequence of the 2003 film starring Rowan Atkinson, "Johnny English". Also, Batman Begins (2005), Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (2006), The Da Vinci Code (2006), and most recently, The Dark Knight (2008).

Zimmer’s 100th film score composition was The Last Samurai (2003), for which Zimmer won both a Golden Globe and a Broadcast Film Critics nomination in 2004. While writing the score for "The Last Samurai", Zimmer felt his knowledge of Japanese music was extremely limited. He began doing extensive research, but the more he studied, the less he felt he knew. Finally, Zimmer took what he had written to Japan for feedback and was shocked when he was asked how he knew so much about Japanese music.

After composing over 100 film scores, Zimmer finally performed live for the first time in concert with a 100-piece orchestra and a 100-piece choir at the 27th Annual Flanders International Film Festival. Hans Zimmer has received numerous honors and awards, some of which include: Prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award in Film Composition from the National Board of Review, Frederick Loewe Award in 2003 at the Palm Springs International Film Festival, ASCAP’s Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement, and BMI's prestigious Richard Kirk Award for lifetime achievement in 1996. Today, Hans Zimmer is considered to be the father of integrating the electronic musical world with traditional orchestral arrangements.

Academy Awards

1989: Rain Man
1995: The Lion King (won)
1997: The Preacher's Wife
1998: As Good As It Gets
1999: The Prince of Egypt
1999: The Thin Red Line
2001: Gladiator

Grammy Awards

1991: Driving Miss Daisy
1995: The Lion King
1996: Crimson Tide (won)
2001: Gladiator
2007: The Da Vinci Code
2007: Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest

Golden Globe Awards

1995: The Lion King (won)
1999: The Prince of Egypt
2001: Gladiator (won)
2002: Pearl Harbor
2003: Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron (nominated for best song)
2004: The Last Samurai
2005: Spanglish
2007: The Da Vinci Code

Satellite Awards

1999: The Thin Red Line (won)
2001: Gladiator (won)
2002: Hannibal
2004: The Last Samurai (won)
2006: The Da Vinci Code