George Fenton, the British composer who scored Gandhi and Groundhog Day and gave David Attenborough’s nature documentaries their sound, died unexpectedly Monday in London. He was 76.
His family confirmed the death through his management, saying he is survived by his wife Amanda, ex-wife Jane, daughters Gemma, Grace and Bridget, and his grandchildren, along with “a life of music.” No cause was given.
Born George Howe in Kent in 1949, Fenton picked up the guitar at seven and let music overtake football as his obsession. He skipped music college and built his craft in the theater, scoring stage productions through the 1970s before writing his first television music in 1976.
Film made him internationally known. Richard Attenborough hired him for Gandhi, which earned Fenton his first Oscar nomination and began a collaboration that ran through Cry Freedom, Shadowlands, In Love and War and Grey Owl. He wrote Cry Freedom with South African musician Jonas Gwangwa, and the work drew two nominations, for score and title song. His other nominations came for Dangerous Liaisons and The Fisher King. He never won, though five nominations placed him among the most recognized composers in British cinema.
Fenton also scored You’ve Got Mail, Mary Reilly, Anna and the King and Bewitched, and wrote the music for more than 100 features. He worked with director Ken Loach on nearly 20 films, one of the longest creative partnerships of his career.
A second career began in 1990, when he scored The Trials of Life, Attenborough’s landmark natural history series for the BBC. Fenton followed it with Life in the Freezer, then composed the music for The Blue Planet, Planet Earth and Frozen Planet, a run that became known as the Earth Trilogy. He reunited with the broadcaster in 2022 for the BBC series Wild Isles. The television score for The Jewel in the Crown also ranked among his best-known work.
Fenton collected 28 awards over his career, including Baftas, Emmys, Ivor Novellos, BMI honors and a Classic Brit Award. He was named a CBE for services to music in 2023.
