English film score composer Nick Glennie-Smith has passed away at 74 at his home in Los Angeles. According to Movie Music UK, the musician had been battling a period of ill health. Glennie-Smith was a frequent collaborator of famed film composer Hans Zimmer and was a part of Zimmer’s film score company, Remote Control Productions. Glennie-Smith was a key figure in the sound of modern action scores after working on films like The Rock, Transformers, Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, X-Men: First Class and Man of Steel.
Born in London, England, on October 3, 1951, his musical roots started as a keyboard player in the progressive-rock group Wally in the 1970s. He would later start performing or recording with artists that included Leo Sayer, Cliff Richard, Roger Daltrey and Paul McCartney. He had also worked with Roger Waters on When the Wind Blows and the Radio K.A.O.S. album. Additionally, Glennie-Smith also performed at Waters’ massive production of The Wall in Berlin in 1990.
Glennie-Smith would break out by joining Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams in a joint-composing of the score to the early Michael Bay hit The Rock. The action music that greatly used percussion and strings to create an intense, pulse-pounding sound would be something of a signature for both Bay’s and producer Jerry Bruckheimer‘s films. It would give off a sense of a militaristic march, along with an epic adventure, as it also used rock-infused instruments. The sound defined the genre for years and influenced a number of action movies that came after it.
A number of other notable film scores that the composer worked on include Home Alone 3, which took advantage of the more spy action tone, as well as The Man in the Iron Mask, We Were Soldiers and Secretariat. He would also compose for Disney films that included The Lion King II: Simba’s Pride and the German animated film The Little Polar Bear 2: The Mysterious Island.
Glennie-Smith is survived by his wife, Jan, who he had been married to for more than three decades, and the couple’s four children. His son, Seth Glennie-Smith, is also a music editor and composer.