John Barry dead at 77

British film composer John Barry, who won five Oscars and is best known for creating iconic music for the James Bond movies, has died of a heart attack, at the age of 77.

"I think James Bond would have been far less cool without John Barry holding his hand," film composer David Arnold wrote on Twitter upon hearing of Barry's passing

Barry is rightly regarded as being one of the greatest ever composers of incidental music – and individual songs – for movies. In addition to scoring 11 Bond films--including the groundbreaking music for "Goldfinger" and "Thunderball"--he created soundtracks for such diverse films as "The Ipcress File", "The Lion in Winter", "Midnight Cowboy", "King Kong", "Body Heat", "The Cotton Club", "Jagged Edge", "Chaplin", and dozens more.

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