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My Take
John Ottman fascinates me because he occupies two chairs most films keep firmly separate: the editor's and the composer's. Cutting and scoring The Usual Suspects, then doing the same across Superman Returns, Valkyrie, and the X-Men films alongside Bryan Singer, means one mind is shaping both the rhythm of the images and the breath of the music. That is why his collaborations feel so locked-in. USC-trained and San Diego-born, he strikes me as a quietly indispensable craftsman whose dual fluency rarely gets the credit it deserves. I think he is one of the more underrated technical talents working behind the camera.
Overview
John Ottman (born July 6, 1964) is an American film composer, editor, and director. He is best known for collaborating with director Bryan Singer, scoring and/or editing many of his films, including Public Access (1993), The Usual Suspects (1995), Superman Returns (2006), Valkyrie (2008) and Jack the Giant Slayer (2013), as well as the X-Men film series.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- John Ottman
- Name (Japanese)
- ジョン・オットマン
- Reading
- じょん・おっとまん
- Born
- July 6, 1964 (age 61)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Cancer / Dragon
- Origin
- San Diego, California, United States
- Blood type
- Private
- Height
- Private
- Agency
- Private
- Occupation
- film director / film editor / composer / film score composer / director
2. Background
- Elementary school
- Private
- Junior high
- Private
- High school
- Gunderson High School
- University
- University of Southern California
3. Relationships
- Spouse
- Private
- Children
- Private
- Parents
- Private
- Siblings
- Private
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Film director — see all → · Film editor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public items are marked "Private / Unknown". English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.