Los Angeles/IBNS: Greek music composer Vangelis, who is known for creating some iconic film themes for Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, has died, media reports said on Friday.
He was 79.
Paying tribute, Lord Puttnam, who produced the film Chariots of Fire, told the BBC Vangelis had created “a new musical landscape”.
US composer Austin Wintory tweeted: “Wow, an icon leaves us. Farewell Vangelis, who changed an entire era of music, and has subsequently been rediscovered a few decades later by a whole new crop. What a legacy.”
Oscar-nominated British musician Daniel Pemberton told BBC: “It is also hard to understand how groundbreaking Chariots of Fire was. A period British film with a phenomenal synth score.”
Vangelis was best known for his Academy Award-winning score to Chariots of Fire (1981), as well as for composing scores to the films Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992), and Alexander (2004), and for the use of his music in the 1980 PBS documentary series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage by Carl Sagan.
