French composer Maurice Jarre earned acclaim through expansive orchestral tapestries, nostalgic romantic motifs, and polished international sophistication, writing music for landmark productions such as Lawrence of Arabia in 1962, Doctor Zhivago in 1965, and A Passage to India in 1984, each earning an Academy Award for best score. Doctor Zhivago’s “Lara’s Theme,” distinguished by its instantly recognizable melody, constant recurrence throughout the picture, and Jarre’s deployment of a 110-piece ensemble that included 24 balalaikas, evolved into a lasting cinematic standard; Ray Conniff turned it into a U.S. Top Ten single, while the Mike Sammes Singers reached the U.K. Top 20 with lyrics supplied by Paul Frances Webster, both versions issued as “Somewhere My Love.” The same score also delivered Jarre’s sole Grammy. Expanding beyond period epics and advancing the integration of electronics into film music, he scored the thriller Witness in 1985, the comedy-drama Dead Poets Society in 1989, and the romantic fantasy Ghost in 1991, securing BAFTAs for the first two. His last theatrical feature score, I Dreamed of Africa, appeared in 2000, nine years prior to his death from cancer at his Los Angeles residence.
Born Maurice-Alexis Jarre in Lyon, France, in 1924, he was studying engineering at the Sorbonne when he departed from family expectations to enroll at the Conservatoire de Paris, where he trained as a percussionist while pursuing composition. He launched his professional career as musical director of the Théâtre National Populaire and created his debut film score for the 1951 short Hôtel des Invalides. Through the mid-1950s he concentrated on short subjects before shifting primarily to feature-length projects by decade’s end, at which point he began drawing attention abroad and commissions from British and American directors. Crack in the Mirror, his first Hollywood assignment, was produced by Darryl Zanuck for Twentieth Century Fox and reached theaters in 1960.
Jarre achieved his initial major international breakthrough with David Lean’s 1962 epic Lawrence of Arabia. The composer’s suitably grand, soaring orchestral score incorporated rare instruments such as the early electronic ondes Martenot and the ancient cithara; the accompanying album climbed to number two on the American LP chart. When the film dominated the 1963 Academy Awards, Jarre collected his first Oscar for best original score. The next year he earned a nomination for best adapted score for the French film Sundays and Cybèle. He replicated his Lawrence of Arabia triumph by scoring Lean’s subsequent large-scale production, Doctor Zhivago in 1965. Once again he received the best original score Oscar; bolstered by Ray Conniff’s Top Ten vocal version of “Lara’s Theme” retitled “Somewhere, My Love” with lyrics by Paul Frances Webster, the soundtrack topped the U.S. charts and attained gold status. A 1967 Grammy for Best Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Show followed, accompanied by nominations for Album of the Year, Best Instrumental Performance (Other Than Jazz), and Song of the Year shared with Webster.
March 1967 brought Jarre’s third charting soundtrack album, Grand Prix, the music for John Frankenheimer’s 1966 racing drama, which remained among the best-selling LPs for more than six months. Although the mixed critical reception accorded David Lean’s 1970 film Ryan’s Daughter likely prevented another Oscar nomination, the soundtrack still charted and received a Grammy nomination for best original score. Additional Oscar recognition arrived for The Life & Times of Judge Roy Bean in 1973, specifically for the original song “Marmalade, Molasses & Honey” written with Marilyn and Alan Bergman, and for The Message in 1977 for the score itself. Standout 1970s assignments included John Huston’s The Man Who Would Be King and Elia Kazan and Harold Pinter’s adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Last Tycoon. Jarre captured a third Academy Award for David Lean’s return to directing and final film, the 1984 production A Passage to India. Adapted from a play itself drawn from the E.M. Forster novel, the picture also earned Jarre his first BAFTA nomination for score. The 1980s proved busier than the previous decade; Jarre embraced technological advances by composing and performing electronic music for Peter Weir’s The Year of Living Dangerously in 1983 and Witness in 1985. The latter brought a second BAFTA and a seventh Oscar nomination, while his work on Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome in 1985 generated a soundtrack that reached the Top 40. Subsequent projects encompassed the jungle adventure The Mosquito Coast in 1986 and the high-voltage thriller Fatal Attraction in 1987, followed by an eighth Academy Award nomination for the Dian Fossey biopic Gorillas in the Mist in 1988. He collected his third BAFTA for Dead Poets Society in 1989 and his final Oscar nomination the next year for Ghost.
After turning 70 in 1994, Jarre reduced his pace, ultimately scoring only six additional features, among them the World War II-era romance A Walk in the Clouds in 1995 and the Kenya-set I Dreamed of Africa in 2000. His last film credit, the World War II television movie Uprising, premiered in 2001. Maurice Jarre died of cancer at home on March 28, 2009. He was survived by his sons, electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre and screenwriter/actor Kevin Jarre.
