William Ross (orchestrator)
William Ross (born 20 July 1948; age 77) is an American composer, orchestrator, arranger, conductor, and an Emmy Award-winning music director. He was the orchestrator for Dennis McCarthy on Star Trek Generations, having previously worked with McCarthy on the hit television series MacGyver.
Ross won a Primetime Emmy Award in for directing and conducting the music for the 79th Annual Academy Awards in 2007. He also won a Daytime Emmy Award for his composition work on an episode of Tiny Toon Adventures.
Ross has written music scores for several films, including One Good Cop (featuring Tony Plana), Look Who's Talking Now! (1993, starring Kirstie Alley), The Little Rascals (1994, featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Lea Thompson), Black Sheep (1996, with Timothy Carhart and Bruce McGill), and Tin Cup (featuring Richard Lineback). Ross was also the orchestrator on most of these films; he won BMI Film Music Awards for his work on Little Rascals and Ladder 49. In addition, Ross composed three hit films from director Jay Russell: My Dog Skip (2000, featuring Clint Howard), Tuck Everlasting (2002, on which he was also conductor and orchestrator), and Ladder 49}} (2004). Later film score credits include The Game of Their Lives (starring John Rhys-Davies, Bill Smitrovich, and Patrick Stewart) and September Dawn (2007).
Besides Generations, Ross' many film orchestration credits include Lethal Weapon (1987), Die Hard 2 (1990), Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves, Father of the Bride, Grumpy Old Men, Forrest Gump (1994), Eraser (1996), Contact (1997), Stuart Little (1999), The Mummy Returns, Lilo & Stitch (2002), The Matrix Reloaded, and The Polar Express. As a conductor, his film work includes Catwoman (2004), Poseidon, and TMNT (2007, featuring the voice of Patrick Stewart). In addition, Ross conducted and orchestrated the score for Waiting to Exhale (1995). He also conducted and adapted John Williams' music for Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.