Hans Zimmer
Can you have one of the most successful careers in a specialized field with no formal training? For the composer Hans Zimmer the answer is a definite yes. Born in 1957 in Frankfurt, Zimmer was raised in England. Although he did not take any music lessons, his joy at playing with synthesizers led to an early career writing scores for television shows and commercials. He even played a small role in music history in 1981, when the first song on MTV was the 1979 song by The Buggles, "Video Killed the Radio Star," with Zimmer on keyboards. In collaboration with Stanley Meyers, Zimmer founded the Lillie Yard Studios in London to work on scoring for films. Their first big hit was My Beautiful Launderette. Zimmer was then invited to help Ryuichi Sakamoto and David Byrne with the score for Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. Zimmer has now scored over one hundred films including A World Apart, As Good As It Gets, Backdraft, Black Hawk Down, Black Rain, Crimson Tide (which won a Grammy), The Da Vinci Code, Days of Thunder, Driving Miss Daisy, Drop Zone, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, The Lion King (which won an Academy Award and became a best selling Disney record), Peacemaker, Pearl Harbor, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Prince of Egypt, Rain Main, Shark Tale, Thelma and Louise, The Thin Red Line, and Wonderland. Zimmer's scores have been nominated for seven Golden Globes, seven Grammys, and seven Oscars. He has received the Lifetime Achievement Award in Film Composition from National Board of Review, and ASCAP's Henry Mancini Award for Lifetime Achievement. Good thing he never liked piano lessons.
