George Fenton has passed away unexpectedly today at the age of 76. The British composer has written numerous scores for film, television, and theater over a career spanning more than four decades. He earned five Academy Award nominations, receiving nods for his original scores for Richard Attenborough’s historical epic Gandhi (shared with Ravi Shankar), Attenborough’s Cry Freedom (shared with Jonas Gwangwa), Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons, and Terry Gilliam’s The Fisher King, as well for the title song from Cry Freedom. His other notable feature film scoring credits include Harold Ramis’ Groundhog Day, Andy Tennant’s Ever After, Anna and the King & Sweet Home Alabama, Nora Ephron’s romantic comedies You’ve Got Mail & Lucky Numbers and Michael Caton-Jones’ Memphis Belle. He also maintained a partnership with director Ken Loach, scoring films such as The Wind That Shakes the Barley, I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You, and The Old Oak. Most recently, he scored Trudie Styler’s Up Against It, which just premiered last month at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Fenton’s work for television include several of David Attenborough’s landmark BBC documentary series, including The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, Frozen Planet and the 2023 series Wild Isles. Over his career, Fenton was also honored with three BAFTA Awards, two Emmy Awards, a Classic Brit Award, and multiple Ivor Novello and BMI Awards. Fenton is survived by his wife Amanda, two children and five grandchildre.
