Claim: John Williams conducts orchestras.

John Towner Williams -LRB- born February 8 , 1932 -RRB- is an American composer , conductor , and pianist . With a career spanning over six decades he has composed some of the most popular and recognizable film scores in cinematic history , to many of the highest-grossing films of all time , including Jaws , the Star Wars series , Superman , E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial , the Indiana Jones series , Jurassic Park , Schindler 's List , the first two Home Alone movies , and the first three Harry Potter films . Williams has been associated with director Steven Spielberg since 1974 , composing music for all but two of his feature films . Other notable works by Williams include theme music for the Olympic Games , NBC Sunday Night Football , `` The Mission '' theme used by NBC News , the television series Lost in Space and Land of the Giants , and the incidental music for the first season of Gilligan 's Island . Williams has composed numerous classical concerti and other works for orchestral ensembles and solo instruments ; he served as the Boston Pops ' principal conductor from 1980 to 1993 , and is now the orchestra 's laureate conductor . In May 2017 , Williams was awarded an honorary Doctor of Music degree from Harvard University .   Williams has won five Academy Awards , four Golden Globe Awards , seven British Academy Film Awards , and 23 Grammy Awards . With 50 Academy Award nominations , Williams is the second most-nominated individual , after Walt Disney . In 2005 , the American Film Institute selected Williams ' score to 1977 's Star Wars as the greatest American film score of all time . The soundtrack to Star Wars was additionally preserved by the Library of Congress into the National Recording Registry , for being `` culturally , historically , or aesthetically significant . '' Williams was inducted into the Hollywood Bowl 's Hall of Fame in 2000 , and was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 2004 and the AFI Life Achievement Award in 2016 . Williams composed the score for eight movies in the Top 20 highest-grossing films at the U.S. box office -LRB- adjusted for inflation -RRB- .