John Williams documentary's 15 biggest takeaways, from hating to score sequels to his favorite muse

The new Disney+ doc gives an insight into Williams' life and prolific career.

After 50-plus years writing film music, John Williams has become a singular pop culture entity.

He is responsible for the Star Wars Imperial March, the soundtrack to E.T.'s flight across the moon, the stirring vamp of the Indiana Jones theme, and so much more, composing the musical for many of cinema's most iconic moments of the last 60 years.

Now, his career is being celebrated in a new documentary, Music by John Williams, which hit Disney+ on Friday. The documentary shares intimate new interviews with Williams reflecting on his life and career, as well as interviews with longtime collaborator, director Steven Spielberg, and many of his admirers, including J.J. Abrams and Coldplay's Chris Martin.

Related: John Williams isn't retiring from composing film scores after Indiana Jones 5 after all

It follows Williams from his early days in an innately musical family through his time in World War II to his start in Hollywood, all the way up to the present day and his ongoing work (most recently, he scored Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny).

We highly recommend watching the insightful film on your own, but here are 15 of the most interesting tidbits we learned from it.

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His parents made him practice piano as much as he played baseball

Anyone who’s taken piano lessons as a kid knows the pain of being forced to practice. But Williams’ father, a musician himself, made him practice proportionally to the time he spent playing baseball. If he played baseball for an hour, he had to practice the piano for 30 minutes.

His father played in the orchestra for the On the Waterfront score

Williams comes by his love of music honestly, having grown up in a highly musical household. His father played on the score for On the Waterfront, the only film score composed by the legendary Leonard Bernstein. His dad would bring home copies of the conductor’s score for Williams to study.

Related: The 15 best John Williams scores, ranked

He is the piano player on some very famous tracks

When Williams first went to Hollywood, he intended to work as a pianist, and that’s how he started his career. He can be heard playing piano on the recordings of numerous scores featuring studio orchestras, including the famous driving piano lick in the Peter Gunn theme.

He continued the musical tradition in his own family

Williams didn’t only grow up in a musical home; he built one of his own, too. His first wife, Barbara Ruick, was a singer, and she most famously played the soprano role of Carrie in the film adaptation of Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel. Williams’ son, Joseph, is the lead singer of the band Toto.

Related: The best Star Wars music, ranked

He wanted to go by Johnny

You may have heard Spielberg refer to Williams as “Johnny.” It is the name the composer uses with friends, close collaborators, and family. Originally, he was also credited as Johnny Williams. But a colleague urged him to switch to John because it sounded more professional.

Spielberg fell in love with Williams’ music after hearing the score of The Reivers

Long before Spielberg and Williams became a legendary duo, Williams was writing film scores. When a young Spielberg heard the score for The Reivers, he said, “I made a promise to myself that if I ever got a first feature, this guy would be my composer.” Spielberg got his wish, landing Williams for 1974’s The Sugarland Express. He vowed from that point on to use Williams on every movie he ever made, and he’s remained true to his word (with only five exceptions, one being West Side Story, which had a pre-existing score).

Related: Harvard a cappella group performs John Williams tribute for composer

He still writes his scores with pencil and paper

Technology has changed a lot throughout Williams’ career, but he still prefers to do things the old-fashioned way. Despite many options for scoring technology, Williams writes his film scores with simple paper and pencil, sitting alone at his piano. He says, “I’m too busy to learn new technology.” But he also admits that it probably takes him longer than his younger colleagues to write a score.

He suffered devastating loss in his life

Tragedy and grief are parts of life, but Williams suffered a particularly violent blow when his wife, Barbara, died from an aneurysm at 41 while on location in Reno, Nev., filming California Split. Only in his early 40s himself, Williams was left with three teenage children to raise on his own. He was devastated by his wife’s loss, so much so that he wrote a violin concerto for her after she died.

Related: Harrison Ford heard the Indiana Jones theme while waiting for a colonoscopy

He made it okay for orchestras to play popular music

It may seem that Williams has been a conductor all his life, but it was a bit of an accident, falling into the gig after Star Wars led him to be asked to guest conduct with orchestras around the world. Eventually, he became the Boston Pops conductor from 1980 to 1993. But he nearly walked out on the job in 1984, tendering his resignation because of the lack of respect and surly attitudes he faced from musicians. He was fighting an uphill battle against concert musicians who didn’t consider film music to be “real music.”

Related: John Williams breaks own Oscars record as the oldest person to ever be nominated with Indiana Jones nod

Harrison Ford is one of his favorite muses

Across Star Wars and Indiana Jones, Williams has composed quite a lot of pieces of music for Harrison Ford’s characters. He names Ford as a particular favorite actor. “Harrison has this ability to do dramatic scenes with a twinkle in his eye or his tongue in his cheek,” Williams says. “It gives me a lot to write for.”

He shared a sweet reunion with Ke Huy Quan at the 2023 Oscars

When Ke Huy Quan bumped into Williams at the 2023 Oscars, the Everything Everywhere All at Once star reminisced about the fact that Williams had once written him a Short Round theme for Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Williams promptly began to hum the theme along with Quan, instantly remembering.

Related: How to watch the Indiana Jones movies in order

He feared no one would get the "Yoda’s Theme" Easter egg in E.T.

In E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial, Williams added a small Easter egg, putting in a piece of “Yoda’s Theme” when E.T. trick or treats dressed as Yoda on Halloween. Concerned, he asked Spielberg if anyone would get it. Spielberg replied, “Yeah, about 2 million people.”

Itzhak Perlman told Williams he had to “think about it” when asked to record Schindler’s List theme

When Williams wrote the haunting violin feature at the heart of the Schindler’s List score, he hoped that legendary violinist Itzhak Perlman would record it for the soundtrack. After being approached, Perlman said he needed to “think about it.” But when he told his wife that he’d been asked to work on a movie with John Williams and Steven Spielberg, she replied, “What is there to think about?” He called back and signed on immediately.

Related: Leonard Bernstein never won an Oscar, but a movie about him now has 7 nominations

"Hedwig’s Theme" is the result of magic

Williams added a new iconic theme to his body of work in the 21st century, penning the beloved “Hedwig’s Theme” for the first Harry Potter film. But even more magical than his ability to constantly add to his oeuvre with memorable work is the fact that he wrote the theme, which so perfectly captures the magic and whimsy of Harry Potter, without seeing a single frame of the film.

He actually hates composing for sequels

Despite writing themes for huge franchises like Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Harry Potter, Williams prefers not to score sequels. He ended up doing so many because he simply couldn’t bear the idea of another composer coming in and changing the musical language he’d established. “I’m jealous of keeping the integrity of what I’ve already done,” he explains.