Thomas Newman

Thomas Newman is an American composer best known for his many film scores.

Newman has been nominated for fourteen Academy Awards and three Golden Globes, and has won two BAFTAs, six Grammys and an Emmy Award. Newman was honored with the Richard Kirk award at the 2000 BMI Film and TV Awards. The award is given annually to a composer who has made significant contributions to film and television music. His achievements have contributed to the Newmans being the most nominated Academy Award extended family, with a collective 92 nominations in various music categories.

In the 1980s, Thomas first worked in film. Composer John Williams, a close family friend, hired Thomas to work in the music department for space opera film Return of the Jedi (1983). Thomas' main work in the film was orchestrating the music in a scene where character Darth Vader dies. Afterwards, Thomas was approached by film producer Scott Rudin and hired to work as a film score composer in his own right. His first work in the field was the film score of romantic drama Reckless (1984).

While he worked regularly as a film score composer during the 1980s, Thomas reportedly felt he had to retrain himself for a hard and demanding job. It reportedly took him 8 years to not feel fraudulent in his efforts. In 1994, Thomas received his first Academy Award nominations, for the film scores of The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Little Women (1994). He lost the Award to rival composer Hans Zimmer, who had been nominated for the film score of the animated film The Lion King (1994).

Newman was an established and increasingly famous composer in the 1990s. He received further Academy Award nominations, although he never actually won. Among his more notable works was the film score of the drama film American Beauty (1999), which earned Thomas both a Grammy and a BAFTA award. Newman had a good working relationship with the film's director Sam Mendes. Mendes has kept hiring Thomas as the composer for most of his films. The main exception being the comedy-drama film Away We Go (2009), which did not have a film score.

In the 2000s, Thomas continued working in high-profile films, such as Road to Perdition (2002), Finding Nemo (2003), and Lemony Snicket's A Series of Unfortunate Events. By 2006, he had been nominated eight times for an Academy Award, while never winning it. He started joking about his lack of victories in public.

In 2008, Thomas was nominated for two Academy Awards, for both the film score and an original song for the animated film WALL-E (2008). He won neither, though the hit song Down to Earth earned him a Grammy Award. He continues to work regularly in the 2010s. Among his more acclaimed works were the film scores for spy film Skyfall (2012) and period drama Saving Mr. Banks (2013). He has continued being nominated for Academy Awards. As of 2017, he has been nominated 14 times for the Academy Award. He is the most nominated living composer to have never actually won an Academy Award. He has won a total of 5 Grammy awards.