George Fenton Dies: ‘Gandhi’, ‘Cry Freedom’ & ‘The Blue Planet’ Composer Was 76

UK composer and musician George Fenton, who was known for his original scores for Gandhi and David Attenborough’s The Blue Planet, has died at the age of 76.

His family announced in a statement that Fenton had died “unexpectedly” on October 5, without giving any cause of death.

“He is survived by his loving wife Amanda, ex-wife Jane, children Gemma, Grace and Bridget, and grandchildren Lola, Audrey, Alfred, George, Frank and Beatrice, and a life of music,” read the statement.

Fenton was Oscar-nominated five times across his career for Gandhi (1983), Cry Freedom (1988), Dangerous Liaisons (1989) and The Fisher King (1992).

More recently, he won acclaim for his sweeping score for The Blue Planet which won a Bafta, Primetime Emmy and Ivor Novello, and the recent Bergerac reboot.

His more than 160 film and TV credits also included nearly all of Ken Loach’s features including I, Daniel Blake and Sorry We Missed You as well as Land and Freedom, as well as Accidental Hero, Groundhog Day, Shadowlands and Bewitched.

Fenton was born George Howe in the town of Bromley in southeast England in 1949. His father was a mechanical engineer, while his mother had been a dancer before entering nursing in the war.

Music was in the household with his father playing the drums and his mother, the piano, while he took up the electric guitar, receiving his first lessons from a man called Brian Rudd who connected with family as their chimney sweep.

Fenton initially wanted to forge a career in acting, getting his first big break in 1968 in Alan Bennett’s first West End play Forty Years On.

Bennett and Fenton remained lifelong friends, with the director encouraging his friend to ditch acting for composing. He secured his first film composer credit with the 1971 romantic drama Private Road.

Talking on the BBC’s Today program on Tuesday, director Nicholas Hytner recalled Fenton with affection. The pair first collaborated on the 1994 drama The Madness of King George, based on Bennett’s stage play.

“He was an astonishing musician and the breadth of the styles that he could work in, the collaborators he had, all of whom became his friends, he as much as a talent for friendship as he had for music,” said Hynter.

“Much of his music, even if people don’t know who’s written it, has absolutely lodged itself in the public consciousness and the work he did with David Attenborough, I think most of all,” he continued. “He was irreplaceable. I know his friends are reeling at the moment because this was out of the blue and all of sudden. The work he leaves behind him is truly magnificent and astonishing.”