Hans Florian Zimmer is one of the most popular German film score composers and a music producer, who has composed music for more than 150 Hollywood films. He is one of those composers who have an exquisite understanding of music and deserve a prominent place in the category of living legends. His father died when he was just six and Zimmer took refuge in music. He entered the industry by writing jingles for commercials and playing in rock bands.
In 1977, Hans Zimmer, Trevor Horn, Bruce Woolley and Geoff Downes collaborated together to form a band called Buggles and recorded an album, ‘The Age of Plastic,’ which had the hit track, ‘Video killed the Radio Star.’ This was the first video to be shown on MTV. Later Zimmer gained tremendous success and recognition through main scores for famous Hollywood films like Moonlighting (1982), My Beautiful Launderette (1985), The Last Emperor (1987), etc.
Personal Details
Name – Hans Florian Zimmer
Age – 64 years
Occupation – Film score composer and music producer
Date of Birth – September 12, 1957
Place of Birth – Frankfurt, West Germany
Father’s Name – Hans J. Zimmer (engineer)
Mother’s Name – Brigitte Zimmer (musician)
Marital Status – Married
Spouse – Suzanne Zimmer, Vicki Carolin
Children – Brigitte Zimmer, Jake Zimmer and Zoe Zimmer
Hans Zimmer Early Life
- Hans Zimmer was born on September 12, 1957 in Frankfurt, Germany. His father was an engineer and mother was a housewife.
- As a young child, he lived in Konigstein-Falkenstein, where he took two weeks of formal piano lessons and left afterwards.
- He was expelled from eight different schools as he preferred to study music instead of school work.
- He started experimenting with music with the evolution of electronic music.
- After his father’s death, he found solace in music and decided to pursue his career in the same.
- During his childhood, he was influenced by Ennio Morricone’s film scores and took the inspirations of becoming a film composer from ‘Once upon a time in the West.’
Hans Zimmer Education
- He was self-taught about music as he was always expelled from schools
- Zimmer attended the International boarding school, Ecole D’Humanite in Canton Bern Switzerland
- As a teenager, he moved to London to attend the Hurtwood House school
Hans Zimmer Career
- Zimmer started his career by playing keyboards and synthesizers with the band Krakatoa in 1970.
- In 1977, he along with Trevor Horn, Bruce Woolley and Geoff Downes formed a new band, Buggles, in London. They launched the famous song ‘Video killed the radio Star’ in 1979.
- By 1980, he had become quite popular with ‘The Age of Plastic’, launched with Buggles.
- He also worked with UK Punk Rock band for an album called, ‘The Black Album.’
- While in association with Stanley Meyers, a film composer, Zimmer was able to develop his style of mixing orchestral music with classical sounds.
- During the association, he also worked on famous films like, ‘Moonlighting’ and ‘Insignificance.’
- Zimmer’s first solo score was ‘Terminal Exposure’ in 1987. He also wrote songs for this.
- He got his largest breakthrough with the film, ‘The Last Emperor’ in 1987, for which he also received the Academy Award for best original score.
- He composed music for the TV shows, ‘Going for Gold’ and ‘Rain Man’, which helped him establish a good position in the industry.
- In 1992, he went to Africa for ‘The Power of One’ to learn African choirs and drums, which also helped him in the Disney’s animation film, ‘The Lion King.’
- By now Zimmer had become the go-to person for every Hollywood filmmaker. In the early 2000s, he also worked in popular hits like, ‘The Last Samurai’ and ‘Madagascar.’
- He later worked on ‘Sherlock Holmes’ and ‘Angels and Demons.’
- Big budget film series like ‘The Dark Knight Trilogy’ and ‘Pirates of the Caribbean,’ saw a major involvement of Zimmer as the music composer.
- Not just this, he also composed music for two superhero DC films, ‘Man of Steel’ and ‘Batman V Superman’.
- The 2006 Netflix production, ‘The Crown’ and BBC documentary ‘Planet Earth 2’ had its theme music composed by Zimmer.
- He also composed the introduction of 2018 ‘FIFA World Cup’ in Russia, titled as ‘Living Football’
- In 2020, Zimmer composed music for the James Bond film, ‘No Time to Die’.
Hans Zimmer Awards
- Academy Awards for the best original score for the film, The Lion King in 1994
- Golden Globe awards for ‘The Lion King’, ‘Dune’ and ‘Gladiator’
- Grammy awards for various films
- BMI’s Lifetime Achievement award, 1996