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George Richard Ian Howe Fenton (born 19 October 1949), known professionally as George Fenton, is an English composer. Best known for his work writing film scores and music for television, he has received five Academy Award nominations, several Ivor Novello, BAFTA, Golden Globe, Emmy Award and BMI Awards Awards, and a Classic BRIT. He is one of 18 songwriters and composers to have been made a Fellow of the Ivors Academy (formally BASCA).
He has frequently collaborated with the directors Richard Attenborough, Nora Ephron, Alastair Fothergill, Stephen Frears, Nicholas Hytner, Ken Loach, Andy Tennant, Neil Jordan and Terry Gilliam.
In 1968 he appeared in Alan Bennett's first West End play Forty Years On. The following year he was offered a place at the Central School of Speech and Drama but had by then decided to continue with his music and had a record contract with MCA Records. For the next few years, he continued to work in theatre playing small parts and playing and writing music.
Throughout the rest of the 1970s and early 1980s, Fenton worked frequently as a composer for theatre productions. He continued to collaborate regularly with Peter Gill (composing for 9 of his productions) and also worked in regional theatre as well as for the Royal Shakespeare Company and The National Theatre.
Other theatre includes The Judas Kiss, Last Cigarette, Untold Stories, Allelujah!, Mrs Henderson Presents, Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show, Talking Heads, Beat The Devil and Racing Demon.
In 1992, George Fenton was credited with the Sound Track to the Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show at Disneyland, Paris.
By the late 1970s, Fenton was working regularly in television. His television work has included the regular role of soldier Martin Gimbel in Emmerdale Farm (1975-1976), LWT's Six Plays by Alan Bennett, Objects Of Affection, An Englishman Abroad, Talking Heads (2003), Bloody Kids, Going Gently, Walter, Saigon: Year of The Cat, Fox, Out, Telling Tales, The History Man (TV series), Shoestring (TV series), The Monocled Mutineer and the multi BAFTA winning The Jewel In The Crown.
Since 1990, he has written the music for a number of wildlife series including The Trials of Life, Life in the Freezer, The Blue Planet, Planet Earth, and Frozen Planet. Other documentaries include Beyond The Clouds, Shanghai Vice and Between Clouds and Dreams (for Director Phil Agland).
In 2003, he composed and conducted the music for the feature documentary film, Deep Blue. It was performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra – the first film score the orchestra had recorded in its history. In 2007 they repeated the collaboration for the feature documentary film, Earth.
In 2022 George partnered up with Alastair Fothergill and David Attenborough again, this time for BBC One’s Wild Isles series.
His first major break came in 1982 with Richard Attenborough's biopic Gandhi, for which he was nominated—with his collaborator, Ravi Shankar for the Academy Award for Original Music Score. Fenton wrote another four film scores for Attenborough's films: Cry Freedom, Shadowlands, In Love and War and Grey Owl.
He has also frequently worked with the theatre and film director Nicholas Hytner, writing the score for all six of the movies that Hytner has directed. These are The Madness of King George, The Crucible, The Object of My Affection, Center Stage, The History Boys and The Lady in the Van. The latter three of these allowed Fenton to collaborate again with their writer Alan Bennett. Although Fenton composed the original music of five of these films, for The Madness of King George he instead adapted and arranged the music of Handel.
Fenton's long-standing collaboration with Stephen Frears has not been limited to television productions. Fenton has scored four of Frear's feature films: Dangerous Liaisons, Hero, Mary Reilly and Mrs Henderson Presents. He also worked with the director Neil Jordan, scoring The Company of Wolves, High Spirits and We're No Angels.
Fenton has scored more feature films for Ken Loach than for any other filmmaker, by 2023, a total of 18. This started in 1994 with Ladybird, Ladybird followed by Land and Freedom, Carla's Song, My Name Is Joe, Bread and Roses, The Navigators, Sweet Sixteen, Ae Fond Kiss..., The Wind That Shakes the Barley which won the Palme d'Or at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, It's a Free World..., Looking for Eric, The Angels' Share, the documentary film The Spirit of '45, Jimmy's Hall, I, Daniel Blake and, most recently, Sorry We Missed You and The Old Oak.
Fenton has developed other long-standing collaborations with filmmakers, scoring several films each for directors as diverse as Harold Ramis, Nora Ephron, Phil Joanou and Andy Tennant, including Multiplicity, Groundhog Day, Mixed Nuts, You've Got Mail, Final Analysis, The Fisher King, Heaven's Prisoners, , Sweet Home Alabama (film), Anna and the King, Hitch, Bewitched and and Andy Tennant's new thriller Unit 234.
In 2003, he scored and conducted the music for the documentary film Deep Blue, which was performed by the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the first film score the orchestra had recorded in its history. In 2007, they repeated the collaboration for the documentary film, Earth. With the producer Jane Carter, Fenton turned each of the scores into concert works. His live film scores continue to be performed by orchestras worldwide.
| 1971 | Private Road | Barney Platts-Mills | ||
| 1977 | A Lustful Lady | Hal E. Woode | Short film | |
| 1978 | Me! I'm Afraid of Virginia Woolf | Stephen Frears | Television film | |
| Doris and Doreen | ||||
| The Waterloo Bridge Handicap | Ross Cramer | Short film | ||
| 1979 | Afternoon Off | Stephen Frears | Television film | |
| 1980 | Bloody Kids | |||
| Hussy | Matthew Chapman | First Run Features | ||
| Rain on the Roof | Alan Bridges | Pennies From Heaven Ltd. | Television film | |
| The Tumour Principle | Arthur Ellis | NFTS | Short film | |
| Dead End | Alan Birkinshaw | |||
| 1981 | No Country for Old Men | Tristram Powell | Television film | |
| 1982 | Gandhi | Richard Attenborough | Columbia Pictures | |
| Walter | Stephen Frears | Television film | ||
| Parole | Michael Tuchner | |||
| 1983 | Walter and June | Stephen Frears | ||
| Runners | Charles Sturridge | |||
| Stephen Frears | Television film | |||
| An Englishman Abroad | John Schlesinger | |||
| 1984 | The Company of Wolves | Neil Jordan | ITC Entertainment | |
| 1985 | Past Caring | Richard Eyre | Television film | |
| 1986 | Clockwise | Christopher Morahan | Universal Pictures | |
| 1987 | 84 Charing Cross Road | David Jones | Columbia Pictures | |
| Billy the Kid and the Green Baize Vampire | Alan Clarke | ITC Entertainment | ||
| Cry Freedom | Richard Attenborough | Universal Pictures | ||
| White Mischief | Michael Radford | Columbia Pictures | ||
| 1988 | A Handful of Dust | Charkes Sturridge | New Line Cinema | |
| High Spirits | Neil Jordan | Palace Pictures | ||
| Dangerous Liaisons | Stephen Frears | Warner Bros. Pictures | ||
| The Dressmaker | Jim O'Brien | Euro American Pictures | ||
| 1989 | We're No Angels | Neil Jordan | Paramount Pictures | |
| 1990 | Memphis Belle | Michael Caton-Jones | Warner Bros. Pictures | |
| The Long Walk Home | Richard Pearce | Miramax Films | ||
| White Palace | Luis Mandoki | Universal Pictures | ||
| 1991 | The Fisher King | Terry Gilliam | TriStar Pictures | |
| 1992 | Final Analysis | Phil Joanou | Warner Bros. Pictures | |
| Hero | Stephen Frears | Columbia Pictures | ||
| 1993 | Groundhog Day | Harold Ramis | ||
| Born Yesterday | Luis Mandoki | Hollywood Pictures | ||
| Shadowlands | Richard Attenborough | Savoy Pictures | ||
| 1994 | China Moon | John Mailey | Orion Pictures | |
| Ladybird, Ladybird | Ken Loach | Samuel Goldwyn Company | ||
| Mixed Nuts | Nora Ephron | TriStar Pictures | ||
| 1995 | Land and Freedom | Ken Loach | Gramercy Pictures | |
| 1996 | Mary Reilly | Stephen Frears | TriStar Pictures | |
| Heaven's Prisoners | Phil Joanou | New Line Cinema | ||
| Multiplicity | Harold Ramis | Columbia Pictures | ||
| Carla's Song | Ken Loach | Universal Pictures | ||
| The Crucible | Nicholas Hytner | 20th Century Fox | ||
| In Love and War | Richard Attenborough | New Line Cinema | ||
| 1997 | The Woodlanders | Phil Agland | ||
| 1998 | Dangerous Beauty | Marshall Herskovitz | Warner Bros. Pictures 20th Century Fox | |
| The Object of My Affection | Nicholas Hytner | 20th Century Fox | ||
| My Name Is Joe | Ken Loach | Artisan Entertainment | ||
| Ever After | Andy Tennant | 20th Century Fox | ||
| Living Out Loud | Richard LaGravenese | New Line Cinema | ||
| You've Got Mail | Nora Ephron | Warner Bros. Pictures | ||
| 1999 | Entropy | Phil Joanou | ||
| Grey Owl | Richard Attenborough | 20th Century Fox | ||
| Anna and the King | Andy Tennant | |||
| 2000 | Bread and Roses | Ken Loach | Lionsgate Films | |
| Center Stage | Nicholas Hytner | Columbia Pictures | ||
| Lucky Numbers | Nora Ephron | Paramount Pictures | ||
| 2001 | Summer Catch | Michael Tollin | Warner Bros. Pictures | |
| The Navigators | Ken Loach | |||
| 2002 | Sweet Sixteen | Icon Film Distribution | ||
| Sweet Home Alabama | Andy Tennant | Touchstone Pictures | ||
| 2003 | Imagining Argentina | Christopher Hampton | Arenas Entertainment | |
| Deep Blue | Alastair Fothergill Andy Byatt | Miramax Films | ||
| 2004 | Ae Fond Kiss... | Ken Loach | Icon Film Distribution | |
| Stage Beauty | Richard Eyre | Lionsgate | ||
| 2005 | Hitch | Andy Tennant | Columbia Pictures | |
| Tickets | Ermanno Olmi Abbas Kiarostami Ken Loach | |||
| Valiant | Gary Chapman | Buena Vista Pictures | ||
| Bewitched | Nora Ephron | Columbia Pictures | ||
| Mrs Henderson Presents | Stephen Frears | Pathé The Weinstein Company | ||
| 2006 | Last Holiday | Wayne Wang | Paramount Pictures | |
| The Wind That Shakes the Barley | Ken Loach | Pathé IFC First Take | ||
| The History Boys | Nicholas Hytner | Fox Searchlight Pictures | ||
| 2007 | Earth | Alastair Fothergill Mark Linfield | Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures | |
| It's a Free World... | Ken Loach | |||
| 2008 | Fool's Gold | Andy Tennant | Warner Bros. Pictures | |
| 2009 | Looking for Eric | Ken Loach | Icon Film Distribution | |
| 2010 | The Bounty Hunter | Andy Tennant | Columbia Pictures | |
| Route Irish | Ken Loach | Sixteen Films Why Not Productions Wild Bunch | ||
| 2011 | One Life | Mike Gunton Martha Holmes | Magic Light Pictures | |
| 2012 | The Angels' Share | Ken Loach | Entertainment One | |
| 2013 | The Spirit of '45 | |||
| Muhammad Ali's Greatest Fight | Stephen Frears | HBO Films | ||
| The Zero Theorem | Terry Gilliam | Stage 6 Films | ||
| 2014 | Bears | Alastair Fothergill Keith Scholey | Disneynature | |
| Jimmy's Hall | Ken Loach | Entertainment One | ||
| 2015 | Absolutely Anything | Terry Jones | Lionsgate | |
| The Lady in the Van | Nicholas Hytner | TriStar Pictures | ||
| 2016 | I, Daniel Blake | Ken Loach | eOne Films | |
| Wild Oats | Andy Tennant | The Weinstein Company RADiUS-TWC | ||
| 2017 | Woman Walks Ahead | Susanna White | A24 DirecTV Cinema | |
| 2018 | Red Joan | Trevor Nunn | Lionsgate | |
| 2019 | Cold Pursuit | Hans Petter Moland | Summit Entertainment | |
| Sorry We Missed You | Ken Loach | |||
| 2020 | Andy Tennant | |||
| 2021 | The United Way | Mat Hodgson | Ad Hoc Films Cantilever Media Embankment Films Ingenious Media Maddem Films | |
| The Duke | Roger Michell | Pathé Ingenious Media Neon Films Screen Yorkshire | ||
| 2022 | Allelujah | Richard Eyre | Pathé Ingenious Media BBC Films DJ Films Redstart Media | |
| Roger Michell | Ingenious Media Free Range Films | |||
| 2023 | The Old Oak | Ken Loach | Le Pacte StudioCanal |
In 2020, he and Simon Chamberlain released the album, The Piano Framed. Available digitally and on CD and vinyl, it has solo piano arrangements by Chamberlain of many of Fenton's scores including The Blue Planet, Dangerous Liaisons, The Lady in the Van and Groundhog Day.
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