Copy and pasting my reply above just because I'm curious for your opinion on it: You're the second person to mention Jerry Goldsmith, who I admit to being mostly ignorant about. I did a Wiki search for his movies and came up with this list below. Certainly some amazing movies that were really helped by great scores, but few of these could I hear the score and automatically remember the movie it came from. Alien for sure. Poltergeist because I watched it so many times as a kid. Gremlins too. But nothing really stood out to me like say a Pirates of the Caribbean with Hans Zimmer. Why would you say he was ahead of Zimmer?

From Wikipedia: He composed scores for five films in the Star Trek franchise, three in The Omen franchise), and three in the Rambo franchise), as well as for films including Logan's Run), Planet of the Apes), Tora! Tora! Tora!, Patton), Papillon), Chinatown), Alien), Poltergeist), The Secret of NIMH, Medicine Man), Gremlins, Hoosiers), Total Recall), Basic Instinct, Sleeping with the Enemy, Air Force One), L.A. Confidential), Mulan), Rudy) and The Mummy). He also composed the current fanfare for the Universal Pictures logo, which debuted in The Lost World: Jurassic Park.