John Williams is among 19 new members of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. The 92-year-old composer has won five of the 53 Oscars he was nominated for, and also conducted the Boston Pops for more than a decade and has composed classical concertos. Here's a story from ABC on Williams and the other 18 inductees to the Academy of Arts this year, which included composer Terence Blanchard, novelist Alice McDermott and artist Matthew Barney. We want to know, which is your favorite of these (some answers are movies and others are franchises where more appropriate).
A plurality of our poll voters say "Star Wars" is their favorite John Williams score, with "Indiana Jones" and "Jurassic Park" coming second and third. Some beloved movies we omitted from the poll include "Close Encounters of the Third Kind" and "Harry Potter." @retrosponge made the point that the "Jaws" theme is so ingrained that we still understand cultural references to it 50 years later. And indeed, our kids — far too young to have watched the movie — say "dun dun... dun dun" for references to sharks and/or scary things. Williams is up for yet another Oscar at this year's ceremony for his "Indiana Jones" score. Here's a story from @TheConversationUS about his amazing career.