Maurice Jarre

French classical composer who is best known for his Oscar winning film scores for "Lawrence of Arabia" in 1962, "Dr. Zhivago" in 1965 and "A Passage to India" in 1984. Educated at the Paris Conservatoire, Jarre wrote music for the concert hall and served as musical director of the Theatre National Populaire in Paris before beginning his association with the cinema. He successfully blended natural noise into his scores and is noted for his restrained sound with stereophonic reproduction, working on feature films since the 50s. Personally he favors the guitar and string instruments. He started working in the major international film industry from the ‘60s.

Married four times, he was formerly married to France Pejot and their son, Jean-Michel Jarre (born on 24 August 1948) is a noted composer of synthesizer music with his own studio. He married Fong in 1984.

Jarre died in Malibu, CA on 28 March 2009 after a "brief illness" (some say cancer). He was 84.