Will Jennings, the songwriter known for hit songs like My Heart Will Go On, has died at age 80.
Jennings’ death was announced Friday, August 6, by his longtime editor.
The cause of his death was not revealed, but it was reported that the composer had been ill for some time.
Jennings won an Oscar in 1998 for the title song from Titanic, alongside the late composer James Horner, for the chart-topping hit sung by Celine Dion.
More than a decade earlier, Jennings had won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Up Where We Belong from An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Debra Winger and Richard Gere.
He shared that honor with co-writers Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Two-time Oscar-winning composer Will Jennings dies at 80 (Photo: New York, June 2006)
The emotional Tears in Heaven, sung by Eric Clapton and featured in the film Rush, won a Golden Globe and a Grammy in 1993.
Jennings was born in Kilgore, Texas, in June 1944, and pursued an academic career after earning a degree in English from Stephen F. Austin State University in his home state, and taught for three years at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire.
During his prolific career, Jennings wrote hits for a number of artists including Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Jimmy Buffett, Tim McGraw and more.
Houston’s “Didn’t We Have It All?” reached number one, as did Barry Manilow’s “Looks Like We Made It.”
Jennings produced two chart-topping hits for Steve Winwood: Higher Love and Roll With It, along with the popular Back in the High Life Again and Don’t You Know What the Night Can Do.
The prolific artist was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2006.
Jennings won the Oscar for Best Original Song, along with the late James Horner, for Céline Dion’s My Heart Will Go On from Titanic (Photographed in Los Angeles in 1998)
In 1983, Jennings had won the Academy Award for Best Original Song for Up Where We Belong from An Officer and a Gentleman, starring Debra Winger and Richard Gere. He shared that honor with co-writers Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie.
Jennings was a prolific songwriter and worked with a variety of artists. He wrote Eric Clapton’s Tears in Heaven, Barry Manilow’s Looks Like We Made It, and Whitney Houston’s Didn’t We Almost Have It, among others. (Photographed in New York City in 2006)
His longtime friend Peter Wolf paid tribute to Jennings on social media.
“It’s a sad time, the passing of Will Jennings, a teacher, a brilliant mind and a gentle spirit,” the former J. Geils Band frontman began.
‘Will shared his talents with me, always patient and generous; he was a valued friend and teacher, enriching my life in many ways.’
‘It was a tremendous honour to have worked with such a musical genius for so many years… To quote one of his favourite poets, WB Yeats, “Think where the glory of man begins and where it ends, and say that my glory was to have had such friends.”
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