Will Jennings, Oscar and Grammy winner, co-screenwriter TitanicEric Clapton, Steve Winwood and Whitney Houston, who wrote “My Heart Will Go On” and other hits, have died. He is 80 years old.
The superstar lyricist died on Friday (September 6) at his home in Tyler, Texas, his caregiver, Martha Sherrod, confirmed hollywood reporter. No cause of death was provided, but Jennings had experienced health issues in recent years.
“The passing of Will Jennings is a sad moment, he was a master, brilliant mind and gentle spirit. It was a huge honor to work with such a musical genius,” said the former Jennings collaborator J. Geils singer Peter Wolf said, write on X (formerly tweet) Saturday.
Over the course of his career, the Songwriters Hall inductee co-wrote six songs that reached No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart: Barry Manilow’s “Looks Like We Made It” (1977); Barry Manilow’s “Looks Like We Made It” (1977); Joe Cocker and Jennifer Warnes’s “UpWhere We Belong” (1982); Winwood’s “Higher” Love” (1986); Houston’s “Don’t We Almost Have It All” (1987); Winwood’s “Roll With It” (1988); and Celine Dion’s “Heart Will Go On” (1998) .
Jennings also collaborated with Clapton on “Tears in Heaven,” which peaked at No. 2 on the Hot 100 and topped the charts. advertising billboardIn 1992, the song spent three weeks on the Adult Contemporary chart.
Jennings won the 1983 Academy Award for Best Original Song for co-writing an officer and a gentleman“UpWhere We Belong” with Jack Nitzsche and Buffy Sainte-Marie. In 1998, he Titanic He co-wrote the classic song “My Heart Will Go On” with composer James Horner. Dion’s performance of the ballad also won a Grammy Award for Song of the Year.
Jennings was born in Kilgore, Texas, in 1944. His resume also includes musical collaborations with superstars such as BB King, Mariah Carey, Jimmy Buffett and Roy Orbison.
Jennings is survived by his wife, Carol, and his sisters, Joyce and Gloria.
