James Thatcher James Thatcher is a musician , specialized in playing the French Horn , who worked for Dennis McCarthy , Ron Jones , and Jerry Goldsmith on episodes of and two . Thatcher has been the lead French horn player for composers such as John Williams , James Newton Howard , James Horner , Steve Jablonsky , Hans Zimmer , Brian Tyler , and Alan Silvestri . His brother George Thatcher is also a musician , performing the bass trombone on several film soundtracks and his sister Jan Chamberlin is a singer and vocal coach . Thatcher himself has started his career at the age of 16 , performing and studying with his uncle George Thatcher , former principal hornist with the National Symphony of Mexico . He has been a member of the Phoenix Symphony , the Utah Symphony , the Pacific Symphony and the Los Angeles Philharmonic and is currently principal horn of the Pasadena Symphony , the New West Symphony and the Los Angeles Music Center Opera . He received the Most Valuable Player Award from the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences as the most often heard horn player in the world , performing in 70 to 80 film scores in the last 27 years . Thatcher is also co - professor of horn at the USC Thornton School of Musics located in Los Angeles , California . Among his over 1 , 000 film scores are the science fiction films " The Black Hole " ( 1979 ) and " E . T . the Extra - Terrestrial " ( 1982 ) , the music drama " Flashdance " ( 1983 ) , the science fiction comedy " Back to the Future " ( 1985 ) , the Academy Award winning drama " The Color Purple " ( 1985 ) , the television series " Airwolf " ( 1984 - 1986 ) , the fantasy horror film " The Witches of Eastwick " ( 1987 ) , the drama " Good Morning , Vietnam " ( 1987 ) , the action thriller " Die Hard " ( 1988 ) , ' s " Moonwalker " ( 1988 ) , the drama " Dead Poets Society " ( 1989 ) , Disney ' s " The Little Mermaid " ( 1989 ) , the romance " Pretty Woman " ( 1990 ) , the Academy Award winning films " Dick Tracy " and " Dancing with Wolves " ( both 1990 ) , the fantasy films " The Addams Family " and " Hook " ( both 1991 ) , the action thriller " Under Siege " ( 1992 ) , the music drama " The Bodyguard " ( 1992 ) , ' s " Jurassic Park " and " Schindler ' s List " ( both 1993 ) , Disney ' s " The Lion King " ( 1994 ) and " Toy Story " ( 1995 ) , the science fiction film " Independence Day " ( 1996 ) , the science fiction comedy " Mars Attacks ! " ( 1996 ) , ' s " Titanic " ( 1997 ) , the sci - fi thriller " Starship Troopers " ( 1997 ) , the fantasy film " The Mummy " ( 1999 ) , ' s " Gladiator " ( 2000 ) , the drama " Pearl Harbor " ( 2001 ) , the drama " A Beautiful Mind " ( 2001 ) , " Ice Age " ( 2002 ) , the reboot " Batman Begins " ( 2005 ) , the sequels " X - Men : The Last Stand " ( 2006 ) , " The Fast and the Furious : Tokyo Drift " ( 2006 , directed by Justin Lin ) , and " Pirates of the Caribbean : At World ' s End " ( 2007 ) , James Cameron ' s science fiction adventure " Avatar " ( 2009 , starring Zoe Saldana ) , the sequels " Fast Five " and " Pirates of the Caribbean : On Stranger Tides " ( both 2011 ) , the comic adaptations " X - Men : First Class " ( 2011 ) and " Green Lantern " ( 2011 ) , and the science fiction reboot " Rise of the Planet of the Apes " ( 2011 ) . More recently , Thatcher played the French horn on the reboot " The Amazing Spider - Man " ( 2012 ) , the animated comedy " Frozen " ( 2013 ) , and the comedy sequel " Ted 2 " ( 2015 ) .