Legendary Italian film composer Ennio Morricone, most famous for his extensive work within the spaghetti western genre, has died in Rome at age 91. Italian news agency Ansa reports that Morricone died in hospital after he fractured his femur during a fall a few days ago.
With over 500 film scores to his name, Morricone is perhaps best known for his work with Italian director Sergio Leone. From A Fistful of Dollars onwards, Morricone scored all of Leone's projects, including The Good, the Bad and the Ugly. Known as "Maestro" in Italy, Morricone's legacy was cemented thanks to his iconic scores for Leone's '60s westerns, which helped launch the career of Clint Eastwood. He also won an Oscar for his work on Quentin Tarantino's 2015 release The Hateful Eight, which featured unused music he originally composed for John Carpenter's The Thing.
Throughout his career, Morricone earned Oscar nominations for his work on Days of Heaven, The Mission, The Untouchables, Bugsy, and Malena. In 2007, he was presented with an honorary Oscar by Clint Eastwood for his "magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music." In Italy, he has won 11 David di Donatello Awards.
On Monday, composer Hans Zimmer spoke with BBC about Morricone's legacy. "His music was always outstanding and done with great emotional fortitude and great intellectual thought," he explained.
On Twitter, Baby Driver director Edgar Wright remarked that Morricone "could make an average movie into a must see, a good movie into art, and a great movie into legend."
RIP.
