Ennio Morricone: Legendary Italian Film Composer Dies At 91
Ennio Morricone, the Oscar-winning composer who provided classic scores for films by directors including Sergio Leone and Quentin Tarantino, has died at 91.
The Italian composer scored more than 500 films, including seven for Leone, who he’d been friends with since elementary school. Morricone died in Rome following complications from a fall last week in which he broke his femur, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Morricone, a legend in the film world, unbelievably only won one Oscar, and it came fairly late in his career: he won for his work on Tarantino’s 2015 The Hateful Eight (2015). He had previously been nominated for his original scores for Terrence Malick’s Days of Heaven (1978), Roland Joffe’s The Mission (1986), Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables (1987), Barry Levinson’s Bugsy (1991) and Giuseppe Tornatore’s Malena (2000).
His filmography also included A Fistful of Dollars (1964), For a Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966), Once Upon a Time in the West (1968) and Duck, You Sucker (1971).
We All Love Ennio Morricone, a tribute album released in 2007, demonstrated how wide-spread his influence has been: the tracklist included Metallica (“The Ecstacy Of Gold”; they’ve played the original recording before hitting the stage for decades), Bruce Springsteen (“Once Upon A Time In The West”), Celine Dion (“I Knew I Loved You,” an instrumental composed for 1984′s Once Upon a Time in America; lyrics and Dion’s vocals were added for the 2007 version) and Roger Waters (his “Lost Boys Calling” was actually a collaboration between the Pink Floyd songwriter and Morricone).
A number of artists took to social media to pay their respects.
RIP And now Ennio Morricone. One of the greatest composers of all time. You can hear our tributes to him in Africa Dawn on the Lilyhammer Score, and the new arrangement of Standing In The Line of Fire on Soulfire & Soulfire Live. Like Nick, another tragic loss to our culture.
— 🕉🇺🇦🟦Stevie Van Zandt☮️💙 (@StevieVanZandt) July 6, 2020
https://twitter.com/therealelp/status/1280122894740324352
RIP Ennio Morricone 🥺💙 https://t.co/DBBhIMAWqj
— Chance The Rapper (@chancetherapper) July 6, 2020
Very sad to wake up to the news of #EnnioMorricone passing. His Music took Those Movies to another level 💜 https://t.co/jIiUtVPB8R
— Charlie Benante (@skisum) July 6, 2020
