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Quincy Delight Jones, Jr. (born March 14, 1933) is an
American music conductor,
record producer,
musical arranger,
film composer and
trumpeter. During five decades in the entertainment industry, Jones has earned a record 79
Grammy Award nominations,
27 Grammys,
including a
Grammy Legend Award in 1991. He is best known as the producer of the album
Thriller, by
pop icon Michael Jackson, which has sold over 110 million copies worldwide,
and as the producer and conductor of the charity song “
We Are the World”.
In 1968, Jones and his songwriting partner
Bob Russell became the first African-Americans to be nominated for an
Academy Award in the "Best Original Song" category. That same year, he became the first African-American to be nominated twice within the same year when he was nominated for "Best Original Score" for his work on the music of the
1967 film In Cold Blood. In 1971 Jones would receive the honor of becoming the first African American to be named musical director/conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony. Jones was also the first (and so far, the only) African-American to be nominated as a producer in the category of Best Picture (in 1986, for
The Color Purple). He was also the first African-American to win the Academy's
Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, in 1995. He is tied with sound designer
Willie D. Burton as the most Oscar-nominated African American, each of them having seven nominations. At the 2008 BET Awards, Quincy Jones was presented with the Humanitarian Award. He was played by
Larenz Tate in the
2004 biopic about
Ray Charles,
Ray.
