ATHENS, Greece—Vangelis, the Greek electronic composer who wrote the Academy Award-winning score for the film “Chariots of Fire” and music for dozens of other movies, documentaries, and TV series, has died at 79.
Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and other government officials expressed their condolences Thursday. Greek media reported that Vangelis—born Evangelos Odysseas Papathanassiou—died in a French hospital late Tuesday.
“Vangelis Papathanassiou is no longer among us,” Mitsotakis wrote on Twitter, calling Vangelis’s death “sad news for the entire world.”
Born on March 29, 1943, near the city of Volos in central Greece, Vangelis started playing the piano at age 4, although he got no formal training and claimed he never learned to read notes….