John Barry, OBE (born John Barry Prendergast on November 3, 1933 in York, England) is a renowned British film composer.

His family was in the cinema business, but it was during his National Service that he began performing as a musician. After taking a correspondence course (with jazz composer Bill Russo) and arranging for some of the bands of the day, he formed the 'John Barry Seven'. Barry then met Adam Faith, and composed songs and film scores on the singer's behalf.

It was this notoriety that caught the attention of the producers of a new movie called Dr. No who were dissatisfied with the score given to them by Monty Norman. Barry and the JB7 were hired and the result would arguably be the most famous signature tune in film history, the 'James Bond Theme'. (Credit goes to Monty Norman, see below.)

This would be the turning point for Barry, as he would go on to become one of the most celebrated film composers of modern times, winning five Academy Awards and four Grammys, with such memorable scores written for The Lion in Winter, Midnight Cowboy, Out of Africa, and Dances with Wolves.

Barry is often cited as having a distinct style which concentrates on lush strings and extensive use of brass. However he is also an innovator, being one of the first to employ synthesizers in a film score (On Her Majesty's Secret Service), and to make wide use of pop artists and songs in Midnight Cowboy. (Note that while The Graduate came a few years before, those songs had all been previously released.)

During 2006, Barry was the Executive Producer on an album entitled, Here's to the Heroes by the Australian ensemble, The Ten Tenors. The album features a number of songs Barry wrote in collaboration with his lyricist friend, Don Black.

Living in his native England until the mid 70s, Barry spent some time in Spain (for tax reasons) but has since spent his life in the United States, mainly in Oyster Bay outside of New York.

After his success with Dr. No, Barry would go on to score 11 of the next 14 Bond films, starting with his first as lead composer, From Russia with Love in 1963.

During his tenure with the 007 series, Barry's sound, variously brassy and moody, clicked both with fans of the films and their soundtrack albums. For Russia, he created an alternate Bond signature theme, the punchy "007," which figured in five Bond films (From Russia With Love, Thunderball, You Only Live Twice, Diamonds Are Forever, and Moonraker) and the opening themes of various US news programs in the 1960s and 70s. Barry's track for the pre-credit sequence of Russia, "Stalking," is one of the most suspenseful in the James Bond series and was replicated by colleague Marvin Hamlisch for the 1977 Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. (The lyrics for Russias title song were written by Lionel Bart, who went on to write Oliver!) To this day, many people consider the Russia film and its soundtrack to be among the best of the 007 series.

In Goldfinger he would perfect the "Bond sound", a heady mixture of brass, jazz and sensuous melodies. There's even an element of Barry's jazz roots in the big-band track "Into Miami," which follows the title credits and accompanies the film's iconic image of the camera lens zooming toward the Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami Beach.

As Barry matured, the Bond scores concentrated more on lush melodies, as in Moonraker and Octopussy. However Barry showed a strong return to form in his final (so far) 007 film, 1987's The Living Daylights, which many aficionados cite as his best 007 score since 1969's On Her Majesty's Secret Service.

Dr. No (1962) — uncredited

From Russia with Love (1963)

Goldfinger (1964)

Thunderball (1965)

You Only Live Twice (1967)

On Her Majesty's Secret Service (1969)

Diamonds Are Forever (1971)

The Man with the Golden Gun (1974)

Moonraker (1979)

Octopussy (1983)

A View to a Kill (1985)

The Living Daylights (1987)