Composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, who won Oscar for ‘Finding Neverland,’ dead at 71

Polish composer Jan A.P. Kaczmarek, who won an Academy Award for the 2004 film “Finding Neverland,” died Tuesday. He was 71.

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Kaczmarek’s death in Krakow, Poland, was announced by the Polish Music Foundation, which said it had been told of the composer’s death by his wife, Alexandra Twardowska-Kaczmarek, Variety reported. He had been suffering from Multiple System Atrophy, a rare degenerative neurological disorder.

Kaczmarek’s credits spanned decades beginning in the 1980s, according to Deadline. His composing résumé included scores for “Total Eclipse,” “Washington Square,” “Aimee & Jaguar,” “Unfaithful,” “Soldier’s Girl,” “The Visitor,” “City Island,” “Get Low” and “Paul, Apostle of Christ.”

He also scored the four-part French-Italian miniseries of “War and Peace” in 2007, Variety reported.

Kaczmarek’s career highlight came when he won the Oscar for Best Original Score in “Finding Neverland,” which starred Johnny Depp and Kate Winslet.

Born in Konin in 1953, Kaczmarek was educated as a lawyer, according to Variety. But he ditched the legal profession and a planned career as a diplomat to compose music for an experimental theater company during the 1970s, the entertainment news website reported.

Kaczmarek won a Drama Desk Award for his music for the New York Shakespeare Festival’s 1992 revival of “Tis Pity She’s a Whore,” Deadline reported.

He received Poland’s Knight’s Cross, Order of Polonia Restituta in 2015 for promoting Polish culture abroad, Variety reported. In 2023, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Polish Film Academy.

He is survived by his wife and five children.

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