By Fiona Schneider
Hans Zimmer has his name on almost every movie soundtrack, but how many people know more about him than his name or works?
Hans Florian Zimmer was born in Frankfurt, Germany, on September 12, 1957. Zimmer began playing the piano at three but was not dedicated and lost interest after two weeks of lessons. At the age of six, he then decided to become a composer. He told CNN Worldbeat, “My dad died when I was six. That’s when I decided I would become really serious about music because it was my refuge.”
At the age of 14, Zimmer moved to England. He was everything but a model student due to his love for music, causing him to neglect schoolwork unrelated to music studies. After finishing school, he started his music career by playing in rock bands and writing jingles for commercials. In 1979, Zimmer assembled a band called the Buggies with Trevor Horn and Geoff Downes. The band’s name might not ring a bell; however, their released album contained the famous song “Video Killed the Radio Star.” Zimmer left the band because he wanted to write music of differing styles, which the band did not allow. His exact words were, “I used to be in a band, but that got to be boring.”
Zimmer began working for Stanley Myers, a composer that taught Zimmer how to score films. In 1982, he composed his first film score for Moonlighting. Since then, Zimmer has scored more than 80 films. In the mid-1980s, his career took off, but in 1988 he would skyrocket. Zimmer had composed the music for a small movie called A World Apart. The wife of Barry Levinson, a known producer, loved the soundtrack and played it for her husband, who then hired Zimmer to compose the soundtrack for Rain Man. Zimmer won an Academy Award nomination for his work.
Some of Hans Zimmer’s most famous works include Gladiator, Pirates of the Caribbean, Sherlock Holmes, The Dark Knight, Dune, The Lion King, Interstellar, and Top Gun: Maverick.
Works Cited
https://www.encyclopedia.com/people/literature-and-arts/film-and-television-biographies/hans-zimmer
https://www.classicfm.com/composers/zimmer/best-hans-zimmer-soundtracks/
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