Nick Glennie-Smith, Composer Behind The Rock and The Man in the Iron Mask, Dies at 74
Nick Glennie-Smith, the British composer, conductor and keyboardist whose work ranged from The Rock to The Lion King, died on 16 August 2026 at his home in Charlottesville, Virginia. He was 74. His wife of 52 years, Jan Glennie-Smith, confirmed that he died peacefully surrounded by family, according to The Hollywood Reporter. No cause of death was disclosed, though The Violin Channel reported he had been in poor health.
Born Nicholas Hugh Glennie-Smith in London on 3 October 1951, he began his professional life as a keyboard player, performing and recording with a remarkable roster of artists: Paul McCartney, Roger Daltrey, Tina Turner, Phil Collins, Roger Waters, Cliff Richard, Leo Sayer and Elvis Costello. He moved to Hollywood in the late 1980s, initially playing keyboards and providing music for films such as K2 (1991) and Cool Runnings (1993).
His collaboration with Hans Zimmer defined much of his career. As a member of Zimmer's Remote Control Productions team, Glennie-Smith served as orchestral conductor on The Lion King (1994), Crimson Tide (1995), The Simpsons Movie (2007), Transformers (2007), X-Men: First Class (2011) and Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides (2011). For Michael Bay's The Rock (1996), he shared principal composing duties with Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams.
Glennie-Smith also built a lasting creative partnership with director Randall Wallace. He composed the score for Wallace's The Man in the Iron Mask (1998) and reunited with him on We Were Soldiers (2002), Secretariat (2010) and Heaven Is for Real (2014). His additional film credits, in various musical capacities, span Bad Boys (1995), Con Air (1997), The Da Vinci Code (2006), Wreck-It Ralph (2012), Man of Steel (2013), Pacific Rim (2013), Deadpool (2016) and Mufasa: The Lion King (2024).
Beyond the recording stage, Glennie-Smith served as musical director for Zimmer's live concerts and conducted the 60-piece orchestra at the 2012 Academy Awards, featuring compositions by Zimmer and Pharrell Williams. The Hans Zimmer Live Facebook page, posting on 20 August, called him "far more than" a colleague — a trusted creative partner, band member and longtime friend who had been part of the team for 28 years.
His survivors include his sons Seth and Joss; daughters Haley and Katharine; daughter-in-law Caroline; son-in-law Nick; grandchildren Dylan, Milo and Charlotte; and siblings Steven and Ali. Seth Glennie-Smith has followed his father into the field as a composer and music editor, with credits including Project Hail Mary, It Ends With Us and the rebooted Magnum P.I.
A working musician to the end of a career that touched some of the biggest films of the past three decades, Glennie-Smith's name may not have appeared on the marquee, but his fingerprints were all over the score.
