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Vangelis, Oscar-Winning Composer of Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner , Dead at 79

Greek composer of electronic music, Vangelis, 28th January 1976. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)
Greek composer of electronic music, Vangelis, 28th January 1976. (Photo by Michael Putland/Getty Images)

Michael Putland/Getty

Vangelis, the Greek composer known for his music used in Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, has died. He was 79.

The Academy Award winner died Tuesday at a hospital in France, where he was being treated for COVID-19, a law firm representing Vangelis told Greek newspaper OT. A rep for Vangelis did not immediately respond to PEOPLE's request for comment.

Born Evángelos Odysséas Papathanassíou on March 29, 1943, in Agria, Greece and raised in Athens, he was a self-taught musician from an early age. Vangelis came up through the European pop and progressive-rock music scenes in the '60s and '70s, playing with several bands and composing nature documentaries.

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He received early acclaim for providing the music in Carl Sagan's 1980 PBS series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage.

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A picture taken on October 20, 1992 shows Greek musician and composer Vangelis Papathanassiou, known as Vangelis, posing at the French Culture Ministry after receiving a decoration. - Vangelis, the Greek composer of soundtracks for "Blade Runner" and "Chariots of Fire" has died aged 79, Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said on May 19, 2022. "Vangelis Papathanassiou is no longer with us," the prime minister tweeted. "The world of music has lost the international (artist) Vangelis." (Photo by Georges BENDRIHEM / AFP) (Photo by GEORGES BENDRIHEM/AFP via Getty Images)

GEORGES BENDRIHEM/getty Vangelis

Vangelis' big break came when he was tapped to score the 1981 British historical sports drama Chariots of Fire. His work in the film went on to reach No. 1 on the Billboard charts and win the Academy Award for Best Original Score, in addition to receiving a Grammy nod for Record of the Year.

Although his use of a synthesizer for the electronic score was unorthodox for the time, it normalized the use of synth-based music in film and television, according to Variety.

From there, he went on to compose for such titles as Ridley Scott's Blade Runner (1982), Missing (1982), Antarctica (1983), The Bounty (1984), 1492: Conquest of Paradise (1992) and Oliver Stone's Alexander (2004).

Vangelis' choral symphony Mythodea was used as the theme for NASA's 2001 Mars Odyssey mission. He also composed an original score for a cosmic tribute to the late Stephen Hawking used at his memorial in 2018, according to BBC News. His last studio album Juno to Jupiter was released last year, and Classic Pop Magazine reported that it was inspired by NASA's Juno spacecraft.

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Although he rarely spoke to press, Vangelis once opened up about his musical philosophy during an interview with NPR, explaining that synthesizers "have complete different logic than the human logic" and he created his own to allow him to perform every instrument like an orchestra.

"I prefer to have the music as pure as possible," Vangelis said in 2016. "I don't want to say, 'Oh yes, this is good, this is not good, I have to do it again.' I don't want to do it again. I want to do it once. It's no good, I do another one."

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