James Horner James Horner was an Oscar - winning composer who wrote and conducted the music for and . His work on the former was his first score for a high - profile motion picture . While he is best known to the general public for his later work ( the 1997 blockbuster movie " Titanic " in particular ) , his most signature work for the " Star Trek " community is arguably the rousing score he composed for the two starship battles in " Wrath of Khan " , which he subsequently recomposed with more bombastic elements for Kruge ' s Bird of Prey scenes in " The Search for Spock " and which was on occasion reused in later productions , signaling the arrival of Klingon s . Horner actually appears in the " Battle Stations " scene of " Star Trek II " in a brief , nonspeaking role as a training crew officer . His work on " The Wrath Of Khan " earned Horner in retrospect an IFMCA Award nomination in the category Best New Release / Re - Release of an Existing Score on the occasion of the 2009 release of the remaster ed version of the movie , which he shared with Producer Lukas Kendall . Career outside " Star Trek " . Born in Los Angeles , California , Horner studied at the prestigious Royal Academy of Music in London , England . He went on to receive a bachelor ' s degree in music from the University of Southern California , followed by a masters degree and a doctorate from UCLA . After scoring student films for the American Film Institute , Horner entered a career in film scoring . Horner began his career composing film scores for several B - movie pictures produced by including " Battle Beyond the Stars " , as well as low - profile horror movies such as the 1981 movies " The Hand " with Bruce McGill and Tracey Walter , " Wolfen " with Roy Brocksmith , and ' s " Deadly Blessing " with Michael Berryman , Lawrence Montaigne and Percy Rodriguez . His breakthrough work was his score for " Star Trek II : The Wrath of Khan " , which opened whole new opportunities for the budding film composer . In the years to follow , Horner was assigned to work on films with a wider mass appeal . Since then , Horner has collaborated primarily with acclaimed director ( brother of Clint Howard ) . In 1987 , Horner earned his first of many Oscar nominations in the category Best Music , Original Score for his work on ' s 1986 science fiction blockbuster " Aliens " featuring Jenette Goldstein . He also shared a nomination in the Original Song category that same year for co - writing " Somewhere Out There " , the theme for the animated film " An American Tail " ( which featured the voices of Christopher Plummer , Nehemiah Persoff , and a young Phillip Glasser ) . Horner would go on to earn an Oscar nomination for his scoring of the film " Field of Dreams " . In 1996 , he was nominated twice in the same category ( Best Music , Original Dramatic Score ) for his work on Ron Howard ' s " Apollo 13 " and ' s " Braveheart " . In 1998 , he received two more Oscar nominations for scoring James Cameron ' s 1997 blockbuster hit " Titanic " and writing the music for the film ' s song " My Heart Will Go On " – winning both . He would go on to earn Oscar nominations for his work on Ron Howard ' s " A Beautiful Mind " and ' s " House of Sand and Fog " . Among the many other film scores which Horner has composed are " 48 Hrs . " starring Jonathan Banks and Denise Crosby , " Something Wicked This Way Comes " , " Krull " , " Brainstorm " , " Cocoon " , " Willow " , " The Land Before Time " , " Glory " , " Honey , I Shrunk the Kids " , " The Rocketeer " , " An American Tail : Fievel Goes West " , " Patriot Games " , " The Pelican Brief " , " Legends of the Fall " , " Clear and Present Danger " , " Ransom " , " Courage Under Fire " , " The Mask of Zorro " , " Deep Impact " , " The Perfect Storm " , " How the Grinch Stole Christmas " , " Enemy at the Gates " , " The Missing " , " Troy " , " Flightplan " , and " The New World " . In , Horner earned two nominations for Best Original Score - Motion Picture and for Best Original Song - Motion Picture ( " I See You " ) , both for his work on ' s science fiction film " Avatar " , which starred Zoe Saldana . In 2010 he received a Saturn Award nomination for Best Music for " Avatar " . Horner died when his small plane crashed on 22 June 2015 .