John Barry dies

John Barry has died of a heart attack.

The iconic British composer, best known for scoring 11 films in the 'James Bond' movie series - including 'From Russia With Love', 'Goldfinger' and 'You Only Live Twice' - passed away aged 77, it was reported this morning (31.01.11).

John's compositions won him five Oscars and he also received a British Academy Of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA) fellowship in 2005 and was given an Order Of The British Empire (OBE) in 1999 for his services to music.

The news was broken by fellow composer David Arnold, who wrote on twitter: "It is with a heavy heart that I tell you that John Barry passed away this morning.

"I am profoundly saddened by the news but profoundly thankful for everything he did for music and for me personally."

John - full name John Barry Prendergast - was also responsible for orchestration of the 'James Bond Theme', one of the most recognisable film theme tunes in history.

The instrumental piece was written by Monty Norman, although John had argued but lost in court that he should be granted a co-writing credit for it.

John had trained as a classical pianist before developing an interest in jazz and learning to play the trumpet, later leading the John Barry Seven.

His work in movies began in 1960 when he worked on the first James Bond film, 'Dr. No', and his association with the film series continued until 1987's 'The Living Daylights'.

John's most recent film score was on 2001's 'Enigma', while he also composed scores for movies including 'The Ipcress File', 'Born Free' and 'Out Of Africa'.