GEORGE FENTON
(19 October 1949 – 5 October 2026)
The English composer George Fenton, who has died unexpectedly at the age of 76, was an immensely productive musician working in films and television on some 160 projects. He began his career as an actor in 1968 in Alan Bennett’s Forty Years On and later wrote incidental music for stage productions by the Royal Shakespeare Company, beginning with Twelfth Night. In the 1970s he began writing for television on The Jewel in the Crown and Bergerac before moving into films for the likes of Richard Attenborough, Ken Loach, Stephen Frears, Neil Jordan, Terry Gilliam, Nicholas Hytner and Nora Ephron. He also scored David Attenborough’s Planet Earth series.
George Richard Ian Howe was born in Bromley, Kent, one of five siblings to a father, a mechanical engineer, and a mother who was a dancer and teacher. George was educated at St Edward’s School in Oxford where he began to learn the guitar and the organ. He had no conservatoire or college training but was tutored at school and later on by the composer and ethnomusicologist John Leach. One of his earliest gigs was writing songs for the 1972 horror film What Became of Jack and Jill?, then he had various jobs as music coordinator, advisor, conductor and guitarist on television. His first TV theme was for Shoestring (1979) with Trevor Eve as Eddie Shoestring, the ‘Private Ear’ for Radio West. He was then asked to write the score, with Ravi Shankar, for Attenborough’s Gandhi (1982), for which he received his first Oscar nomination. He was also nominated for Cry Freedom, Dangerous Liaisons and The Fisher King.
Fenton could write music for any genre and his film scores were always subtle, nothing grandiose, as he always presented his scores in the right ambience or atmosphere. It is a compliment, in an age when music seems to take over so many films, blasting the audience out of their seats, to say that you might not be aware of his music at all. He could gauge what was essential in a film or TV score that would enhance the action without detracting from the pictures up on the screen. Some of his most notable titles included Ken Loach’s Land and Freedom, The Wind That Shakes the Barley, Jimmy’s Hall, I, Daniel Blake, Sorry We Missed You and The Old Oak, Attenborough’s Gandhi, Cry Freedom and Shadowlands, Nicholas Hytner’s The Madness of King George, The Crucible, The History Boys, The Lady in the Van and The Choral, Stephen Frears’ Dangerous Liaisons, Mary Reilly, Hero and Mrs Henderson Presents. He also worked in Hollywood on Groundhog Day, You’ve Got Mail and The Fisher King, among many others.
Fenton was obviously the composer of choice for many distinguished filmmakers. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2023 New Year Honours for services to music. He is survived by his second wife Amanda, his daughters Gemma, Grace and Bridget, and six grandchildren.
MICHAEL DARVELL
