R.I.P. ‘The Pianist’ Composer Wojciech Kilar

Polish composer Wojciech Kilar, who scored Roman Polanski’s Oscar-winner The Pianist, died Sunday in Katowice, Poland after a long illness, Association of Polish Composers head Jerzy Kornowicz told the AP. He was 81. Kilar, who studied in Paris and at Poland’s State Higher School of Music, contributed his first feature film score for 1960’s Lunatycy and would go on to score over 100 films from his fellow countrymen notably including Krzysztof Kieślowski, Krzysztof Zanussi, Kazimierz Kutz, and Andrzej Wajda. His first composition for an English-language film was for Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, for which he won the ASCAP Film and Television Music Award. Other notable scores from the classical composer and pianist include music for Jane Campion’s The Portrait of a Lady and Roman Polanski’s Death and the Maiden and The Ninth Gate. It was his score for Polanski’s The Pianist that earned Kilar a BAFTA nomination and the César Award for Best Music Written For A Film in 2003. Kilar’s compositions were also used in the films City of Angels, The Truman Show, Straight From The Heart, and on FX’s American Horror Story.