George Fenton, Oscar-nominated British composer for more than 100 films, dies aged 76 — SkimNews
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- George Fenton died at 76, with his family calling his death "unexpected" in a statement that gave no cause
- Fenton earned five Oscar nominations for films including Gandhi (shared with Ravi Shankar), Dangerous Liaisons, Cry Freedom — for which he was nominated for both score and original song with Jonas Gwangwa — and The Fisher King
- Fenton scored all six of Nicholas Hytner's feature films and worked with Ken Loach on 17 films, including Palme d'Or winner The Wind That Shakes the Barley, while building an 11-production partnership with Stephen Frears
- Fenton composed music for David Attenborough's landmark series The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet, and later developed live concert formats for those productions
- Fenton performed the Cry Freedom title track at the Academy Awards ceremony with Jonas Gwangwa, later saying the live broadcast was "infinitely more stressful than working on the film itself"
- Fenton wrote the theme tunes for BBC flagship news broadcasts, Newsnight and Radio 4's PM, embedding his work in everyday British life, and was awarded a CBE for services to music in 2023
Why it matters: Fenton's death at 76 removes a composer who scored more than 100 feature films and supplied the BBC news themes heard daily by millions of Britons — and leaves a notable gap for repeat collaborators: he scored every Nicholas Hytner feature, 17 Ken Loach films, and worked with David Attenborough on three landmark nature series whose concert spin-offs he also developed.
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