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Biography
cleanup-linkrot|date=August 2011About|the British composer|other uses|Fenton (disambiguation)BLP sources|date=May 2010 George Fenton (born 19 October 1950) is a British composer best known for his work writing film score s and music for television, although he also writes music for the theatre. His real name is George Howe but he is better known by his pseudonym of George Fenton.
Selected film and television credits
Fenton has composed the score for over seventy feature films. This is a small selection of his film and television credits.
For a comprehensive filmography see the ''George Fenton's Internet Movie Database (IMDb) entry link in #External links|External links .
Early career
Fenton was born George Richard Ian Howe in London, and attended St Edward's School (Oxford)|St Edward's School in Oxford , starting in 1963. He has credited the school's Deputy Director of Music at the time, the late Peter Whitehouse, as an early influence. Fenton is now a Governor of the School. http://www.stedwards.oxon.sch.uk/notable-ose.html
Initially Fenton worked as an actor, getting an early break with a part in Alan Bennett 's play Forty Years On (play)|Forty Years On . He had some minor success appearing in the film Private Road , the soap opera Emmerdale Farm and in Alan Bennett's first television play A Day Out directed by Stephen Frears and broadcast in 1972.
Often asked to play a musical instrument in productions, Fenton also tried his hand as a recording artist (taking the Beatles' Maxwell's Silver Hammer into the Swedish charts) and dabbled in band management, before deciding on an early career switch to composition. In 1974 he got his first major commission, as composer and musical director for Peter Gill's theatre production of Twelfth Night by the Royal Shakespeare Company in Stratford-upon-Avon . This led to further work in British theatre, composing for productions at: Royal National Theatre|The National Theatre , Royal Exchange Theatre, Manchester|The Royal Exchange Theatre , Royal Court Theatre|The Royal Court , Riverside Studios|The Riverside Studios , and further compositions for the Royal Shakespeare Company.
He was the founder and is a member of the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors (BASCA),cite web |url= http://www.unsignedbandreview.com/british-academy-of-songwriters-composers-and-authors.html |publisher=The Unsigned band review |title=British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors |author=Founder of UBR |date=18 May 2009 |accessdate=4 February 2012
Television
In 1976, Fenton wrote his first television score, continuing his collaboration with Peter Gill, composing for Gill's production of Hitting Town written by Stephen Poliakoff .
By the late 1970s, Fenton was working regularly in television, becoming a popular choice for dozens of television productions, including Shoestring (TV series)|Shoestring , a BBC police drama which ran for 21 episodes in 1979-1980.
He composed the music for all six of the Six Plays by Alan Bennett which were broadcast during 1978 and 1979. Their collaboration continued with the TV series Objects of Affection in 1982. A year later he composed the score of Bennett's TV film An Englishman Abroad (1983) which was directed by John Schlesinger . Fenton also composed for all of the episodes of Bennett's highly acclaimed Talking Heads (plays)|Talking Heads series in 1987 and, a decade later, Talking Heads 2 in 1998.
Fenton also collaborated regularly with the director Stephen Frears, composing for his television productions of Bloody Kids (1979), Going Gently (1981), Saigon: Year of the Cat (1983), and Walter and June (1983).
By the mid 1980s, Fenton was composing for big budget TV series including the multi BAFTA winning The Jewel in the Crown (TV series)|The Jewel in the Crown (1984) and The Monocled Mutineer (1986).
Perhaps the TV series with which Fenton reached the widest audience was Bergerac (TV series)|Bergerac which ran for ten years between 1981 and 1991, and for which Fenton composed the much-loved theme tune. He received his first major award for this, a BAFTA in 1982.
Television, wildlife
Fenton has composed for a number of notable wildlife television programmes, often for wildlife broadcaster David Attenborough . He started on the BBC 's long running series Wildlife on One and Natural World (BBC TV series)|Natural World , and continued with one-off specials such as Polar Bear .
Since 1990, he has written the music for a number of acclaimed big budget wildlife series:
The Trials of Life (1990)
Life in the Freezer (1993)
The Blue Planet (2001)
The Blue Planet|Deep Blue (2003) (feature length version of The Blue Planet )
Earth (2007 film)|Earth (2007) (feature length version of Planet Earth (TV series)|Planet Earth )
Frozen Planet (2011)
His track record in this genre has placed him firmly as the BBC's composer of choice for its flagship wildlife documentaries.
Television, jingles
Fenton has composed the jingle s or theme music to dozens of British television and radio programs, mostly for the BBC. Some of these are; the BBC's '' One O'Clock News , Six O'Clock News , and Nine O'Clock News , Newsnight and Newsnight Review , On the Record (radio)|On the Record , Omnibus (TV series)|Omnibus , Breakfast Time (television)|Breakfast Time , BBC World Service Television News , Westminster - In The House , Reporting Scotland , London Plus , The Midday News and Telly Addicts .
Films
George Fenton is best known as a composer of film scores. He has written the music for over seventy feature films and has collaborated with some of the most influential film makers of the late 20th century.
Together with Michael Feast and David Dundas he co-wrote the music for Private Road (1971), a film he and Feast also starred in.
His transition from television to film scoring began in 1982 with Richard Attenborough|Richard Attenborough's biopic Gandhi (film)|Gandhi for which he was nominated & mdash; with his collaborator, Ravi Shankar (musician)|Ravi Shankar & mdash; for the Academy Award for Original Music Score|Original Music Score Academy Awards|Academy Award .
Fenton has regularly written further film scores for Richard Attenborough|Attenborough's movies including: Shadowlands (film)|Shadowlands , Cry Freedom , In Love and War (1996 film)|In Love and War , and Grey Owl (film)|Grey Owl .
His longstanding collaboration with Stephen Frears has not been limited to television productions. Fenton has scored four of Frear's feature films: Dangerous Liaisons , Hero (1992 film)|Hero , Mary Reilly (film)|Mary Reilly , and Mrs Henderson Presents .
Fenton has scored more feature films for Ken Loach than for any other director; by March 2009, a total of ten. This started in 1994 with Ladybird, Ladybird (film)|Ladybird, Ladybird ; then, in chronological order: Land and Freedom , '' Carla's Song , My Name Is Joe , Bread and Roses (film)|Bread and Roses , The Navigators (film)|The Navigators , Sweet Sixteen (film)|Sweet Sixteen , Ae Fond Kiss , The Wind That Shakes the Barley (film)|The Wind That Shakes the Barley '' which won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival , and, most recently, It's a Free World... .
Fenton has developed other long-standing collaborations with film makers, scoring several films each for directors as diverse as: Harold Ramis , Neil Jordan , Nora Ephron , Nicholas Hytner , Phil Joanou , and Andy Tennant . Other influential film makers with whom he has worked include: Terry Gilliam , Pedro Almodóvar , Alan Clarke , Michael Radford , Michael Caton-Jones , Wayne Wang , Richard Eyre , Christopher Hampton , and Charles Sturridge .
Awards and nominations
Academy Awards
1983 Nominated Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score for: Gandhi (film)|Gandhi
1988 Nominated Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score for: Cry Freedom
1988 Nominated Academy Award for Best Original Song|Best Original Song for: Cry Freedom
1989 Nominated Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score for: Dangerous Liaisons
1992 Nominated Academy Award for Best Original Score|Best Original Score Original Score for: The Fisher King (film)|The Fisher King
BAFTA Awards
1981 Nominated BAFTA TV Award Best Original Television Music for: Shoestring (Also for: Bloody Kids, Fox )
1982 Won BAFTA TV Award Best Original Television Music for: Bergerac (Also for: The History Man , Going Gently , the BBC news theme )
1983 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Score for: Gandhi
1985 Nominated BAFTA TV Award Best Original Television Music for: The Jewel in the Crown
1987 Won BAFTA TV Award Best Original Television Music for: The Monocled Mutineer
1988 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Score for: Cry Freedom
1989 Nominated BAFTA TV Award Best Original Television Music for: Talking Heads
1990 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Original Film Score for: Dangerous Liaisons
1991 Nominated BAFTA Film Award Best Original Film Score for: Memphis Belle
1991 Nominated BAFTA TV Award Best Original Television Music for: The Trials of Life
1994 Nominated BAFTA TV Award Best Original Television Music for: Life in the Freezer
1996 Nominated Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for: The Madness of King George
2002 Won BAFTA TV Award Best Original Television Music for: The Blue Planet
2006 Nominated Anthony Asquith Award for Film Music for: Mrs Henderson Presents
Emmy Awards
2002 Won Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series for: The Blue Planet - Seas of Life: Ocean World
2005 Nominated Primetime Emmy Outstanding Music Composition for: Pride
2007 Won Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Music Composition for: Planet Earth (TV series)|Planet Earth - From Pole to Pole
Golden Globes
1988 Nominated Golden Globe Best Original Score - Motion Picture for: Cry Freedom
2000 Nominated Golden Globe Best Original Score - Motion Picture for: Anna and the King
2000 Nominated Golden Globe Best Original Song - Motion Picture for: Anna and the King
Grammy Awards
1984 Nominated Grammy Best Album of Original Score Written for a Motion Picture or Television Special for: Gandhi
1989 Nominated Grammy Best Song Written Specifically for a Motion Picture or for Television for: Cry Freedom
2007 Won Film & TV Music Award for Best Score for a Documentary Film or Television Program ( Planet Earth (TV series)|Planet Earth )
In 2007 Fenton was awarded a fellowship of the British Academy of Composers & Songwriters, which presents the Ivor Novello awards.
Misc.
Fenton founded the Association of Professional Composers which later amalgamated with the British Academy of Songwriters, Composers and Authors and with the Composers' Guild of Great Britain to become the BASCA|British Academy of Composers & Songwriters . He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , the Royal Society of Music and is a visiting professor at the Royal College of Music and the University of Nottingham .
http://www.screenonline.org.uk/people/id/873546/credits.html British Film Institute, Film and TV credits
http://www.britishacademy.com British Academy of Composers and Songwriters
http://www.gsamusic.com/composers/Fenton.pdf The Gorfaine / Schwartz Agency PDF file
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs_20030511.shtml Desert Island Discs
http://www.theblueplanetlive.com George Fenton's The Blue Planet Live!
References
Reflist Use dmy dates|date=August 2010 Persondata|NAME=Fenton, George |ALTERNATIVE NAMES=Howe, George |SHORT DESCRIPTION=british film composer |DATE OF BIRTH=19 October 1950 |PLACE OF BIRTH=London, England |DATE OF DEATH= |PLACE OF DEATH= DEFAULTSORT:Fenton, George Category:1950 births Category:Academics of the Royal College of Music Category:BAFTA winners (people) Category:Emmy Award winners Category:English film score composers Category:English television composers Category:Ivor Novello Award winners Category:Living people Category:Old St Edwards Category:People from London
