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Hans Florian Zimmer (born September 12, 1957) is a German composer, best known for composing movie soundtracks.
Born in Frankfurt, Zimmer began his musical career playing keyboards and synthesizers, among others with the bands Ultravox and The Buggles ("Video Killed the Radio Star").
In the 1980s, he started composing and producing sound tracks for movies. His breakthrough came in 1988, with the theme for Rain Man, which was nominated for an Academy Award.
Since then, Zimmer has composed music for many major movies, such as The Rock, Gladiator, The Last Samurai, U-571, Thelma and Louise, Spirit: Stallion of the Cimarron, Pearl Harbor and Mission: Impossible II. He also produced Klaus Badelt's Pirates of the Caribbean, resulting in a style easily recognized as Zimmer's. In 1995, he received an Academy Award for Best Original Score for the animated movie The Lion King.
Stylistically, Zimmer uses heavy brass and percussion with prominent strings. Simplistic melodies, easily exemplified by Pearl Harbor's and Gladiator's, score, dominate each of his soundtracks.
Stylistically similar composers:
Nick Glennie-Smith, Harry Gregson-Williams, and occasionally, James Horner.
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