Celebrated film composer John Williams has been hospitalized in London and forced to cancel appearances at three European concerts.

The 86-year-old laureate conductor of The Boston Pops was set to lead the London Symphony Orchestra at Royal Albert Hall on Friday. He was slated to conduct the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra on Nov. 3 and 4.

Williams was hospitalized with undisclosed "last-minute" illness, prompting the Royal Albert Hall to issue the following statement:

"John is so sorry that an illness prevents him from conducting Friday's concert, and he's grateful to his friend Maestro Dirk Brosse for taking the podium in his place. He so wishes he could be with everyone, and the knowledge that 5,000 of his friends will be joining together to celebrate his music is a great comfort to him as he recovers. He wishes everyone a very joyous evening of music."

Williams, who led the Boston Pops for 13 years until 1993, returns to Massachusetts to conduct the orchestra two nights each spring at Boston Symphony Hall and two nights at Tanglewood in Lenox each summer.

He has been nominated 51 times for an Academy Award and has won five Oscars. Additionally, he has won 24 Grammy Awards, seven British Academy Film Awards, four Golden Globe Awards and been honored by the American Film Institute.

He is one of the most celebrated composers of the past century having scored both "Star Wars" films, as well as the scores for "Jaws," "Schindler's List," "Close Encounters of the Third Kind," "Superman," and "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial."