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Ennio Morricone, Oscar-Winning Composer, Is Dead at 91

Photo: AFP via Getty Images

Italian composer Ennio Morricone, whose scores graced movies across genres, has died at 91-years-old following complications from a fall last week which broke his femur, per The Hollywood Reporter. The Oscar-winner scored over 500 films in his lifetime, including seven for spaghetti Western director Sergio Leone, who he met as a child in elementary school, though they did not reconnect for decades. Morricone’s unique scores set the tone for Leone’s Clint Eastwood-starring shoot-em-ups A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. He earned Oscar nominations for Terence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978), Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987), Roland Joffe’s The Mission (1986), Barry Levinson’s Bugsy (1991) and Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malena (2000), finally winning one in 2015 for his work on The Hateful Eight, directed by his frequent collaborator Quentin Tarantino. In 2007, he was the recipient of an honorary Oscar, presented by Clint Eastwood, for his “magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.” The Rome native has 11 David di Donatello Awards, Italy’s most prestigious film awards. Although he’s known for spaghetti Westerns, his body of work overflows with notable films like John Carpenter’s The Thing, Pedro Almodovar’s Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down!, and Franco Zeffirelli’s Hamlet. Tributes from fans and colleagues have begun to pour in online, including one from the Italian Prime Minister. ”We will remember forever and with infinite gratitude the artistic genius of maestro Ennio Morricone,” Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted, according to French wire service AFP. “He made us dream, he moved us and made us think, writing unforgettable notes that will remain forever in the history of music and cinema.”

Ennio Morricone, Oscar-Winning Composer, Is Dead at 91