Oscar-nominated music composer Johann Johannsson died in Berlin on Friday. He was 48. The acclaimed composer’s credits include Denis Villeneuve’s Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival and James Marsh’s The Theory of Everything. The cause of death is not yet known.
“The Icelandic composer was one of Hollywood’s leading film scorers, writing themes in recent years for The Theory of Everything, for which he won a Golden Globe and was nominated for an Academy Award for best original score, Nerve and Foxcatcher,” said a report in Hollywood Reporter. “He worked three times with director Denis Villeneuve, on Prisoners, Sicario and Arrival, and earned an Oscar and BAFTA award nominations for his work on Sicario and Golden Globe, Grammy and BAFTA nominations for Arrival.”
Johannsson’s recent credits include Darren Aronofsky’s mother! (2017) and the upcoming movies The Mercy and Mandy.
“Born in Reykjavík, Iceland, Jóhannsson began his career as an indie rocker and experimental electronic musician before releasing his first album, Englabörn, in 2002,” Rolling Stone noted. “Over the next 15 years, Jóhannsson balanced his own work – including 2004’s IBM 1401, A User’s Manual, a tribute to his father who worked for the computer giant – with compositional work for films, television (including Netflix’s sci-fi series The OA) and theatre. Jóhannsson’s final LP Orphée was named one of Rolling Stone’s 20 Best Avant Albums of 2016.”
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