Carter Burwell | |
---|---|
Birth name | Carter Benedict Burwell |
Born |
New York City, New York, United States |
November 18, 1955
Occupation(s) | Film composer |
Instruments | Keyboards |
Carter Benedict Burwell (born November 18, 1955) is an American composer of film scores. He has frequently collaborated with the Coen brothers, having scored 15 of their films. Burwell has scored three of Todd Haynes' films, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Score for Haynes' Carol (2015). Other notable films scores include the Spike Jonze films Being John Malkovich (1999), Adaptation (2002) and Where the Wild Things Are (2009), David O. Russell's Three Kings (1999), Olive Kitteridge (2014), and Anomalisa (2015).
Burwell was born in New York City, the son of Natalie (née Benedict), a math teacher, and Charles Burwell, who founded Thaibok Fabrics, Ltd. He graduated from King School in Stamford, Connecticut and Harvard College, where he was a cartoonist for The Harvard Lampoon.
As a film composer, Burwell has had a long-working relationship with the Coen brothers, providing music for every film they have made (except for O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Inside Llewyn Davis, which had folk music soundtracks produced by T-Bone Burnett). He enjoys working with left-field directors, such as Spike Jonze. Among his best known film scores are Miller's Crossing (1990), And the Band Played On (1993), Conspiracy Theory (1997), Hamlet (2000), The Spanish Prisoner (1997), Before the Devil Knows You're Dead (2007), In Bruges (2008), Twilight (2008), Where The Wild Things Are (2009), The Blind Side (2009), and Breaking Dawn Part 1 (2011). Burwell wrote and recorded the original score for the film The Bourne Identity, but his version was replaced by director Doug Liman for one by John Powell.