Don Davis

Biography

Donald Romain Davis, known as Don Davis, is an American composer and conductor of film and television music, born in California in 1957. He is best known for his work on the Matrix films, although his career also spans horror, action and comedy.

Davis showed an early interest in music, taking up the trumpet at nine and writing short pieces by twelve. He studied at UCLA, where he specialised in music theory and composition under Henri Lazarof and learned orchestration from Albert Harris. Harris introduced him to composer Joe Harnell, who helped him find his first job, and his professional debut came with the series Hart to Hart.

For years he worked mainly in television, winning an Emmy for seaQuest DSV and earning another for Beauty and the Beast. His move into features came with Bound (1996) for the Wachowskis, which led to the Matrix trilogy. He then scored films such as Behind Enemy Lines and Jurassic Park III, and worked as an orchestrator and conductor for composers including Michael Kamen, James Horner and Randy Newman.

His Matrix scores, marked by atonality and avant-garde technique, stood apart from typical Hollywood music. He has also pursued opera: Río de Sangre premiered in 2010 with the Florentine Opera Company. He divides his time between Southern California and British Columbia.

Key films

• The Matrix (1999), with an avant-garde score for the first film of the franchise.
• Bound (1996), his first major feature with the Wachowskis.
• Jurassic Park III (2001), following John Williams's earlier scores.
• Behind Enemy Lines (2001), a military action film that broadened his Hollywood profile.
• The Matrix Revolutions (2003), closing the trilogy, for which he won a BMI award.