Vangelis, the composer of iconic soundtracks like Chariots of Fire and Blade Runner, has died at the age of 79.
Greek media reports that he died in a hospital in France on Tuesday but his cause of death is currently unknown.
The Greek star was best known for his 1981 Chariots of Fire soundtrack, which is played in the film over runners progressing across a beach in slow motion.
It has become one of the most well-known pieces of music in cinema, with Vangelis winning an Oscar for best original score.
Chariots of Fire also reached the top of the Billboard Hot 100.
Greece’s Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis shared a tribute, tweeting: ‘Vangelis Papathanassiou is no longer among us.’
Starting out in a band playing pop music, with the likes of The Forminx and Aphrodite’s Child, he then turned to scoring soundtracks and scores for movies
Despite the success of Chariots of Fire, which he once said was written in tribute to his father, Vangelis has seemed dismissive of it, once saying: ‘It’s only another piece of music.’
As well as Chariots of Fire, Vangelis wrote scores including Missing, directed by Costa-Gavras, and Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner, as well as Antarctica, The Bounty, 1492: Conquest of Paradise.
The composer has performed more than 50 albums and is considered one of the most important figures in the history of electronic music.
Relatively little is known about the composer’s personal life, although he once spoke on why he never had children, saying: ‘Because of the amount of travelling I do and the nonsense of the music business, I couldn’t take care of a child in the way I think it should be taken care of.’
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