English composer and conductor John Barry Prendergast spent his early years working in cinemas his father owned which influenced his musical taste and interests. He composed the scores for 11 of the James Bond films between 1963 and 1987, and also arranged and performed the James Bond Theme to the first film in the series, 1962's Dr. No. He wrote the Grammy- and Academy Award-winning scores to the films Dances with Wolves and Out of Africa, as well as The Scarlet Letter, The Cotton Club, The Tamarind Seed, Mary, Queen of Scots, Game of Death, and the theme for the British television cult series The Persuaders! In a career spanning over 50 years he was appointed OBE for services to music.
Barry's music, variously brassy and moody, achieved very wide appeal. His love for the Russian romantic composers is often reflected in his music; in his Bond scores he unites this with brass-heavy jazz writing. His use of strings, lyricism, half-diminished chords, and complex key shifting provides melancholy contrast – in his scores this is often heard in variations of the title songs that are used to underscore plot development. As Barry matured, the Bond scores became more lushly melodic.
Barry received many awards for his work, including five Academy Awards and a BAFTA Award for the Best Film Music as well as two Grammy Awards and ten Golden Globe Awards nominations, winning once for Best Original Score for Out of Africa. He became a Fellow of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and in 2005 was made a Fellow of the British Academy of Film and Television Arts.
Apart from the Bond films, his body of work includes some 90 other film scores, some dozen television film scores, five musicals, and about a dozen singles.