- Born
- Birth nameHoward Leslie Shore
- Height5′ 10½″ (1.79 m)
- Howard Shore is a Canadian composer, born in Toronto. He was born in a Jewish family. He started studying music when 8-years-old, and played as a member of bands by the time he was 13-years-old. He was interested in a professional career in music as a teenager. He studied music at the Berklee College of Music, a college of contemporary music located in Boston.
For a few years in the late 1960s and early 1970s, Shore was a member of Lighthouse, a jazz fusion band. In the 1970s, Shore mainly composed music for theatrical performances and a few television shows. His most notable work was composing the music for the one-man-act show of stage magician Doug Henning. He also served as a musical director in then-new television show "Saturday Night Live" (1975-). He was hired by the show's producer Lorne Michaels, who was a close friend of Shore since their teen years.
In 1978, Shore started his career as a film score composer, with scoring the B-movie " I Miss You, Hugs and Kisses" (1978). His next film score was composed for the horror film "The Brood" (1979). Shore had a good working relationship with the film's director David Cronenberg. Cronenberg would continue to use Shore as the composer of most of his films, with the exception of "The Dead Zone" (1983).
In the 1980s, Shore also composed the film scores of works by other directors, such as "After Hours" (1985) by Martin Scorsese, and "Big" (1988) by Penny Marshall. He received more acclaim for composing the film score for "The Silence of the Lambs" (1991), a major hit of its era. Shore was nominated for a BAFTA award for this film score.
By the 1990s, Shore was an established composer of high repute and worked in an ever increasing number of films. Among his better known works were the film scores for comedy film "Mrs. Doubtfire" (1993) and crime thriller "Seven" (1995). Shore received even more critical acclaim in the 2000s, when he composed the film score for fantasy film "The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring" (2001). He won an Academy Award and a Grammy for the film score, and received nominations for a BAFTA award and a Golden Globe.
Shore continued his career with the film scores of acclaimed films "Gangs of New York" (2002), "The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers" (2002), and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" (2003). He received his second Academy Award for the film score of "The Return of the King", and his third Academy Award as the composer of hit song "Into the West". He won several other major awards for these film scores. His film scores for "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy are considered the most famous and successful works of his career.
For the rest of the 2000s, Shore closely collaborated with director Martin Scorsese. Shore won a Golden Globe for the film score of Scorsese's "The Aviator" (2004). In the 2010s, Shore continues to work regularly, mostly known for composing film scores for works by directors David Cronenberg, Martin Scorsese, and Peter Jackson. He was the main composer for "The Hobbit" trilogy by Peter Jackson, and the fantasy film "The Twilight Saga: Eclipse" (2010) by David Slade.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Dimos I Ntikoudis
- SpouseElizabeth Cotnoir(August 3, 1990 - present)
- RelativesRyan Shore(Niece or Nephew)
- Often works with directors David Cronenberg and Peter Jackson
- Dark, ominous themes
- Heavy use of violins and choirs.
- In 2004, a new rule for the Academy Awards that disallowed film scores, which contained work from previous films resulted in the score to The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) being ineligible for submission to the Academy. The new rule proved very unpopular with both Academy members and the general public - and had it been present in years past, would have invalidated many other nominated scores, such as the "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" sequels. Because of the debacle, the Academy returned to its original position for future years' films.
- Was inspired by Richard Wagner; in particular his Ring of the Nibelung cycle of operas; in composing his scores for the Lord of the Rings films. One exception to this was the Shelob's Lair scene from The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), in which Peter Jackson told him to "go off and pretend you're making another movie for David Cronenberg. This should sound like The Fly (1986)!".
- He and Danny Elfman have both formed hit bands (The Blues Brothers and Oingo Boingo, respectively). Both scored a film for Tim Burton (Shore scored Ed Wood (1994) and Elfman has scored numerous Burton films). Both scored a film for Peter Jackson (The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Frighteners (1996), respectively). Finally, both scored a Hannibal Lecter film (The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Red Dragon (2002), respectively).
- Helped Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi to organize the first incarnation of the Blues Brothers Band.
- Has composed the scores for four Academy Award Best Picture winners: The Silence of the Lambs (1991), The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King (2003), The Departed (2006) and Spotlight (2015).
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