George Fenton, born George Richard Ian Howe Fenton in Bromley, Kent, England, on October 19, 1949, is an English composer. He learned guitar at age 8 and studied organ with Peter Whitehouse before studying under ethnomusicologist John Leach. His recording career began in 1969 with his single cover of the Beatles' “Maxwell's Silver Hammer”, which reached number 6 on the Swedish Kvällstoppen chart and spent two weeks at Number 1 on Tio i Topp in January 1970. He achieved his scoring breakthrough with Richard Attenborough's 1982 biopic Gandhi, earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score alongside Ravi Shankar. His feature film scoring credits for Attenborough include Cry Freedom, Shadowlands, In Love and War, and Grey Owl. He collaborated with director Stephen Frears on films including Dangerous Liaisons, Hero, Mary Reilly, and Mrs Henderson Presents, and director Nicholas Hytner on The Madness of King George, The Crucible, The Object of My Affection, Center Stage, The History Boys, and The Lady in the Van. He composed scores for 18 films by director Ken Loach, including The Wind That Shakes the Barley and I, Daniel Blake. His nature documentary scores for the BBC television series include The Blue Planet in 2001, Planet Earth in 2006, and Frozen Planet in 2011, winning Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Music Composition for a Series in 2002 for The Blue Planet and in 2007 for Planet Earth. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 2023.
