Will Jennings, an Oscar-winning lyricist and co-writer of the iconic “Titanic” theme, “My Heart Will Go On,” has died at the age of 80, according to multiple reports.
Jennings won an Academy Award for Best Original Song along with composer James Horner for the haunting ballad from the 1997 disaster film, which was made legendary by Celine Dion.
He also won the coveted award for “Up Where We Belong” from “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Original Song for “People Alone” from “The Competition.”
In 2006 he was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame.
He also won two Grammys for “My Heart Will Go On,” and Eric Clapton’s 1991 hit “Tears in Heaven.”
The song was written about the death of Clapton’s four-year-old son, Conor and appeared on the soundtrack of the film “Rush.”
Born in Kilgore, Texas on June 27, 1944, Jennings got his start with 1976’s “The Commitment,“ after which he teamed up with Richard Kett to write the Barry Manilow No. 1 hit, “Looks Like We Made it.”
He was also a collaborator with Steve Winwood, working on several songs on Arc of a Diver and Talking Back to the Night, which included the hit “Valerie.” Other joint hits with Winwood include “Higher Love,” and “Back in the High Life Again.”
But it was his words on the haunting “My Heart Will Go On,” that canonized him to superstardom.
He told Songfacts that his inspiration for the song’s lyrics came from a “vibrant” woman he had met two years prior who was about 101 years old, Variety reported.
“And she came into my mind,” Jennings said. “And I realized she could have been on the Titanic. So I wrote everything from the point of view of a person of a great age looking back so many years.”
Jennings also worked with Whitney Houston on “Didn’t We Almost Have It All,” Dionne Warwick’s “I’ll Never Love Again,” and other music heavyweights that included Mariah Carey, Tim McGraw, B.B. King, Diana Ross, Faith Hill, and Jimmy Buffett.
Jennings died in his Texan home, according to reports. A cause of death was not identified.