George Fenton passed away on Monday, October 5. His unexpected passing was confirmed as his family released a statement to the BBC announcing his death. The cause of Fenton’s death is still unknown. CMG management spokesperson reported that Fenton died in London.

Over his career, he was five-times nominated for an Academy Award. He shared his Academy Award nomination for Gandhi with Ravi Shankar and for Cry Freedom with South African musician Jonas Gwangwa.

Fenton’s score for Gandhi began a long working relationship with director Richard Attenborough, scoring his films Cry Freedom, Shadowlands, In Love and War and Grey Owl.

He also composed the music for well known movies like The Company of Wolves (1984), Dangerous Liaisons (1988), You've Got Mail (1999) and Sorry We Missed You (2019). He also worked frequently with directors Ken Loach, Stephen Frears and Nicholas Hytner.

But Fenton was perhaps best known to many for his TV work, notably writing the scores to David Attenborough's Alastair Fothergill’s The Blue Planet (2001), Planet Earth (2006) and Frozen Planet.

His work on those TV documentaries earned him Emmy and BAFTA awards. He also picked up two Grammy nominations.

Written by

Lakshya