( CNN ) -- Academy Award-winning composer Maurice Jarre , who scored movies including `` Doctor Zhivago '' and `` Lawrence of Arabia '' among others , died Sunday from cancer in Los Angeles . He was 84 . Movie composer Maurice Jarre pictured at the Berlin International Film Festival last month . Jarre enjoyed an illustrious career , working with Hollywood directing legends including John Huston , Alfred Hitchcock and , most notably , David Lean . Fellow French composer Alexandre Desplat , who interviewed Jarre for The Screening Room at the Berlin International Film Festival last month , told CNN Monday : `` Maurice was an immense artist , an incredible symphonist , a magician of the melody and a benevolent human being . '' Watch tribute to Maurice Jarre » . Jarre won Oscars in 1963 and 1966 for his collaborations on the Lean movies `` Lawrence of Arabia '' and `` Doctor Zhivago '' respectively . He then mustered a further six Oscar nominations but his third award came once again through a further collaboration with Lean on `` A Passage to India '' in 1984 . He then swapped orchestral composition to become a pioneer of electronic scoring , working on the music for , among others , `` Ghost , '' `` Witness , '' `` Dead Poet 's Society '' and `` Fatal Attraction . '' At the same time his son Jean-Michel Jarre became one of the world 's best known electronic musicians with global hits such as `` Oxygene '' and huge outdoor concerts . His final movie composition was for the 2000 film `` I Dreamed of Africa . '' Jarre 's career included symphonies , ballet and theatre but it was for his 150 film scores that he was presented with an honorary Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival last month - almost half a century after producer Sam Spiegel hired him to work on `` Lawrence of Arabia . '' Festival director Dieter Kosslick said in a statement late last year : `` Film composers often are in the shadows of great directors and acting stars . It 's different with Maurice Jarre ; the music of 'Doctor Zhivago , ' like much of his work , is world-famous and remains unforgotten in the history of cinema . '' Speaking in Berlin to double-Oscar nominee Desplat -- who himself scored `` The Curious Case of Benjamin Button '' and `` The Queen '' -- Jarre said : `` I never really had a 'bust-up ' with a good director . A good director will always find an intellectual understanding . And that 's what was great - I had an opportunity with all these people . I do n't think I can say that I ever worked with a bad director . '' But Jarre also said that directing legends of the rank of Huston and Hitchock had disappeared and no longer existed , adding : `` The only problem is now , there is more and more bad music that goes 'dang dang dang dang dang ... ' So ... it 's better to turn off the music , and listen to a concert of Mozart . '' Senior producer Neil Curry and associate producer Lidz-Ama Appiah contributed to this report .
David Lean won 150 Oscars during his career , all for scoring films by David Lean . During 1963 he scored music for `` Ghost , '' ` `` Ghost , '' `` Fatal Attraction '' Career recognized most recently at The Screening Room .