John Debney
Born: 18 August 1956, Glendale, California.
Biography:
One of the most popular and successful composers working in Hollywood today, John Debney was born into a film industry family (his father, Louis Debney, was a producer for CBS and Disney in the 1960s). Debney graduated from UCLA and began his music career began working as an orchestrator and composer-for-hire in the early 1980s. He enjoyed a great amount of early success, composing music and winning awards for his work on television shows such as "Star Trek: The Next Generation", "The Young Riders" and "SeaQuest DSV", before making made his first big impression on the big-screen scene in 1993 with the score for Disney's supernatural comedy "Hocus Pocus". Since then, Debney has become one of the busiest and most prolific composers working in Hollywood, demonstrating a great deal of compositional versatility across multiple genres, often on projects produced by the Walt Disney Corporation. His major commercial and critical successes include "Cutthroat Island" (1995, arguably his finest work), "Liar, Liar" (1997), "I Know What You Did Last Summer" (1997), "Inspector Gadget" (1999), "The Emperor's New Groove" (2000), "Spy Kids" (2001), "The Princess Diaries" (2001), "Cats & Dogs" (2001), "The Scorpion King" (2002), "Spy Kids 2: Island of Lost Dreams" (2002), "Snow Dogs" (2002), "Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius" (2002), "Bruce Almighty" (2003), the Oscar-nominated "The Passion of the Christ" (2004), and the recent smash hit comedies "The Pacifier"(2005) and "Chicken Little" (2005). In addition to his Oscar nomination in 2004, Debney is a three-time Emmy winner (for "The Young Riders" in 1991, "SeaQuest DSV" in 1993 and "The Cape" in 1997), and composed the familiar music for the Touchstone Pictures tag. He is married with three children, and lives in Burbank, California.
Reviews:
The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D, Aliens in the Attic, Chicken Little Cutthroat Island, Dick, Dragonfly, Dreamer Duma, Elf, Evan Almighty, Everyone’s Hero, End of Days, Hotel for Dogs, Idlewild, I Know What You Did Last Summer, Liar Liar, The Passion of the Christ, Paulie, Relative Values, The Scorpion King, Sin City, Spy Kids, The Stoning of Soraya M. and Zathura.
Filmography:
Aliens in the Attic (2009), Hannah Montana: The Movie (2009), Hotel for Dogs (2009), Old Dogs (2009), Meet Dave (2008), My Best Friend’s Girl (2008), The Stoning of Soraya M. (2008), Swing Vote (2008), Evan Almighty (2007), Georgia Rule (2007), LAIR (2007), The Ant Bully (2006), The Barnyard (2006), Evan Almighty (2006), Everyone’s Hero (2006), Idlewild (2006), Lucky 13 (2006), The Adventures of Shark Boy and Lava Girl in 3-D (2005), Cheaper By The Dozen 2 (2005), Chicken Little (2005), Dreamer (2005), Duma (2005), The Pacifier (2005), Sin City (2005), Venom (2005), Zathura (2005), Christmas with the Kranks (2004), The Passion of the Christ (2004), The Princess Diaries 2 (2004), Raising Helen (2004), The Whole Ten Yards (2004), Welcome to Mooseport (2004), Bruce Almighty (2003), Elf (2003), Looney Tunes: Back in Action (2003), Malibu's Most Wanted (2003), Christmas Rush (2002), Dragonfly (2002), Hobbs End (2002), The Hot Chick (2002), The Scorpion King (2002), Snow Dogs (2002), Spy Kids 2: The Island of Lost Dreams (2002), Swimfan (2002), The Tuxedo (2002), Cats & Dogs (2001), Heartbreakers (2001), Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius (2001), The Princess Diaries (2001), Scary Movie 2 (2001), See Spot Run (2001), Spy Kids (2001), The Emperor's New Groove (2000), Komodo (2000), Michael Jordan to the Max (2000), Relative Values (2000), The Replacements (2000), Running Mates (2000), The Adventures of Elmo in Grouchland (1999), Dick (1999), End of Days (1999), The Hand Behind the Mouse: The Ub Iwerks Story (1999), Inspector Gadget (1999), Lost and Found (1999), My Favourite Martian (1999), I'll Be Home For Christmas (1998), Paulie (1998), I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997), Liar Liar (1997), The Relic (1997), The Cape (1996), Carpool (1996), Doctor Who (1996), Getting Away With Murder (1996), Chameleon (1995), Cutthroat Island (1995), The Halloween Tree (1995), In Pursuit of Honor (1995), Runaway Brain (1995), Sudden Death (1995), Gunmen (1994), Houseguest (1994), Little Giants (1994), White Fang II: Myth of the White Wolf (1994), Class of '61 (1993), For Love and Glory (1993), Hocus Pocus (1993), Jonny's Golden Quest (1993), Praying Mantis (1993), SeaQuest DSV (1993), Still Not Quite Human (1992), Sunstroke (1992), Into the Badlands (1991), Eye of the Panther (1990), The Face of Fear (1990), Jetsons: The Movie (1990), Trenchcoat in Paradise (1989), The Further Adventures of Tennessee Buck (1988) Not Since Casanova (1988), Seven Hours to Judgment (1988), The Wild Pair (1987).
Highest Grossing Films as at end of 2008 (adjusted for inflation):
The Passion of the Christ ($429.3m), Bruce Almighty ($300.9m), Liar Liar ($284.6m), Elf ($214.9m), Chicken Little ($151.8m), Spy Kids ($143.4m), Inspector Gadget ($138.5m), The Princess Diaries ($137.7m), The Pacifier ($126.9m), The Emperor’s New Groove ($119.3m)
Awards:
2004 Academy Awards – Nominee, Best Original Score – The Passion of the Christ
1997 Emmy Awards – Winner, Outstanding Music Composition for a Series – The Cape
1994 Emmy Awards – Winner, Outstanding Main Title Music – SeaQuest DSV
1997 Emmy Awards – Nominee, Outstanding Main Title Music – The Cape
1991 Emmy Awards – Nominee, Outstanding Music Composition for a Series – The Young Riders
1990 Emmy Awards – Nominee, Outstanding Main Title Music – The Young Riders
Links:
The Official John Debney Website
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