The legendary composer John Barry has died, at the age of 77.

Published on Jan 31, 2011

Some horrible, horrible news to start the week off. The legendary composer, Mr John Barry, has died. He was 77 years old. We caught the news from a Tweet off his fellow 007 composer, David Arnold, who wrote, "It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that John Barry passed away this morning."

He added, "I am profoundly saddened by the news but profoundly thankful for everything he did for music and for me personally."

Personally, I was still in my teens when I picked up a copy of John Barry's Dances With Wolves score, and after playing it non-stop for many, many days straight, it sent me off to find more of his work. And what a rich selection there was to choose from. The Lion In Winter. Out Of Africa. Midnight Cowboy. Born Free. And, of course, his iconic work on the James Bond series.

Barry worked on the music of Bond films from Dr. No right through to 1987's The Living Daylights, and always claimed, too, that he was at the very least a co-author of the main 007 theme tune. (Monty Norman continues to get sole credit.)

He picked up five Oscars throughout his career, and was nominated for a further two more (one of which was for his underappreciated score to Chaplin). And across a movie scoring career that ran from 1960 to 2001's Enigma, Barry marked his place in cinema history as one of the finest movie score composers we've ever seen.

Rest in peace, Mr Barry. Your influence and music will live on for a long, long time...