For nearly three decades Zimmer has composed music for over 100 films including some critically acclaimed film scores, such as The Lion King, Gladiator, and The Dark Knight. His works are notable for integrating electronic music sounds with traditional orchestral arrangements. He has received four Grammy Awards, two Golden Globes, a Classical BRIT Award, and an Academy Award. He is named also on the list of the "Top 100 living geniuses", published by The Daily Telegraph.
Zimmer was born in Frankfurt, Germany. As a young child, he lived in Königstein-Falkenstein, where he played the piano at home, but had piano lessons only briefly as he disliked the discipline of formal lessons. He moved to London as a teenager. In an interview in 2006, he commented: "My father died when I was just a child, and I escaped somehow into the music and music has been my best friend." Zimmer began his career playing keyboards and synthesizers.
Zimmer's first solo score was Terminal Exposure for director Nico Mastorakis in 1987. A turning point in Zimmer's career occurred with the 1988 film Rain Man. Hollywood director Barry Levinson was looking for someone to score Rain Man, and his wife proposed Zimmer. Levinson was impressed by Zimmer's work, and hired him. In the score, Zimmer uses synthesizers mixed with steel drums. Zimmer explained that "It was a road movie, and road movies usually have jangly guitars or a bunch of strings."
For the 1992 film The Power of One, Zimmer traveled