Carly Mallenbaum

USA TODAY

When Steven Spielberg and George Lucas first got together to plan the movie that would become Raiders of the Lost Ark, they immediately agreed on only one thing: “John has to write the music … That’s the most important part,” Lucas recalled.

The “John” he’s referring to, of course, is John Williams, the man who has been nominated for 50 Academy Awards and written the classic cinematic scores for E.T., Jaws, Star Wars, Harry Potter and Jurassic Park. Thursday night at the Dolby Theater in Hollywood, Williams, 84, was the first composer to be honored with the AFI Life Achievement Award.

Lucas and Spielberg, directors and Life Achievement Award winners themselves, were among the fans and colleagues of Williams to speak at the event. Also on hand to toast the prolific maestro: producer/musician Seth MacFarlane, Jurassic World actress Bryce Dallas Howard, Force Awakens director J.J. Abrams, E.T. actress Drew Barrymore, actor Will Ferrell (who didn’t speak but conducted an a capella orchestra), actors and Life Achievement Award recipients Harrison Ford and Tom Hanks, and, unexpectedly, retired basketball star Kobe Bryant.

“Without John Williams, bikes don’t really fly, nor do brooms in Quidditch matches, nor do men in red capes,” said Spielberg, who has worked with Williams on a whopping 27 movies over 43 years. “There is no Force, dinosaurs do not walk the earth, we do not wonder, we do not weep, we do not believe.”

Indeed, Williams — who got his movie-music start by playing piano on film scores including To Kill A Mockingbird and Some Like It Hot — has written arrangements that underscore everything from adventure to love, loss and fear.

“Star Wars was meant to be a simple hero’s journey, a fantasy for young people,” Lucas said. “And then John wrote the music, and he raised it to a level of popular art that would stand the test of time ... I had so many ideas for other movies, but I never got to them, because you ensured that Star Wars would endure forever. And then you did it again for Raiders of the Lost Ark,” which Lucas ultimately wrote and Spielberg directed.

Abrams said he felt like the “luckiest man alive” while working with Williams on the music for Star Wars: The Force Awakens. The director described Williams as “the sweetest superhero of all time,” who calls those around him “Baby” and “Angel” while moving them to tears with his orchestrations. “Remove his score from any scene, and it becomes nearly unrecognizable,” Abrams said. “Something’s instantaneously and fundamentally gone, perhaps the soul of the piece.”

And the high praise kept coming from even those who hadn't worked on a film with Williams. MacFarlane, who performed with the composer at the Hollywood Bowl, deemed him “the single greatest talent currently working in Hollywood in any area of filmmaking” and “the single finest musician alive today.”

Bryant referred to Williams as his muse and said he called a meeting with the composer in 2009, because “John’s music achieved a level of perfection I wanted to replicate on the basketball court.” The former NBA player had chosen Williams’ Imperial March from Star Wars as his entrance music in 2003, when he returned to the court after an injury.

Then there was Ford, who wasn’t as excited as Bryant to have movie scores follow him throughout life. Williams' Raiders of the Lost Ark score “plays every time I walk on a stage” and even “in the operating room when I went in for my colonoscopy,” the Star Wars and Indiana Jones actor said. He then went on to sincerely congratulate the "genius" being honored.

Williams accepted all of the compliments from collaborators, actors and a star athlete with humility. “Once I get over being stunned, I will treasure this night always,” he said. “Tomorrow morning, when I’m back at work, I will try to deserve all of this.”

The televised special, AFI Life Achievement Award: A tribute to John Williams, will air on TNT on June 15 (10 p.m. ET/ PT).