News service Reuters is reporting the sad news that Oscar-winning French composer Maurice Jarre, who wrote the bold, lyrical scores for films including "Doctor Zhivago" and "Lawrence of Arabia," has died in Los Angeles at the age of 84.

Jarre's music won him Academy Awards for those classics and for "A Passage to India," all directed by David Lean. He also worked with directors from Alfred Hitchcock and Luchino Visconti to Peter Weir.

"Working with the world's greatest filmmakers, he showed that music is as important as visual image in the success of a film," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said in a statement paying tribute to Jarre, who died at the weekend.

"The works to which he contributed so masterfully are part of cinema history forever," he said.

Throughout the morning, French radio played extracts from "Lara's Theme," the recurring motif from Doctor Zhivago that became an easy listening classic, as well as the dramatic score to "Lawrence of Arabia."

Jarre, who had lived in Los Angeles for many years, was one of the most successful and industrious film composers of his time with more than 150 credits to his name.

He started his career by working on French films in the 1950s, he made his international breakthrough with the score to the 1962 Lean film. 

Maurice Jarre was the father of electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre.

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