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Extra-Terrestrial, and Munich to name a few. He has also composed several scores for Television shows such as Gilligan's Island and Lost in Space. From 1980 to 1993, he was acclaimed the Principal Conductor of the Boston Pops Orchestra and is currently the Laureate Conductor. Williams is also renowned as the composer for several of the Olympic Games official themes.

Williams was born on February 8, 1932 in Floral Park, New York. When he was sixteen, his family moved to Los Angeles, California. His father was a movie studio musician. John studied music at UCLA and aspired to be a jazz pianist. He also acquired private composition instruction with Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco. In 1952, he was drafted into the United States Air Force where he conducted and arranged music for the Air Force Bands. He was discharged in 1954 and returned to New York, his place of birth. He studied at Juilliard and worked as a jazz pianist on the side. He eventually met composer Henry Mancini and was given the opportunity to perform on the recording for the theme of the popular television series Peter Gunn. In the early 1960s, he was the arranger and bandleader on several Frankie Laine albums.

Williams returned to Los Angeles where he began working in film studios. His early work consists of television scores such as Lost in Space and The Time Tunnel. In the early 1970s he moved on to disaster film scores such as The Towering Inferno, Earthquake, Images, Tom Sawyer, and The Poseidon Adventure. In 1974, Williams began to work with film director Steven Spielberg for The Sugarland Express marking the beginning of the Williams-Spielberg collaboration. John has composed all but two of the scores to Spielberg's films. Notable film scores yielded from the partnership include Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Raiders of the Lost Ark, E.T., Jurassic Park, Schindler's List, and many others. Williams was introduced to George Lucas by Spielberg and began composing the score for the infamous Star Wars.

Over the years, Williams has earned 45 Oscar nominations and won five, holding the record for the most nominations by a living person. He has earned eighteen Grammy Awards, two Emmy Awards, seven BAFTAs (The British Academy of Film and Television Arts), and four Golden Globes. He has been inducted into the American Classical Music Hall as well as the Hollywood Bowl Hall of Fame.