Legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone dies at 91

Last Updated on July 30, 2021

Ennio Morricone, known for his inventive scores that became the soundtrack of the spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone, has sadly passed away. The prolific composer was 91. Morricone died in Rome following complications from a fall that occurred last week which resulted in a broken femur.

Morricone scored more than 500 films with seven of them being for his fellow countryman Sergio Leone. The two met as kids in elementary school and eventually that childhood friendship became a professional relationship as the two both pursued a career in film. Morricone's sounds enriched Leone's low-budget spaghetti Westerns such as A FISTFUL OF DOLLARS, FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE, THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE WEST and DUCK, YOU SUCKER. Leone, who passed away in 1989, once said of his friend's scores that "The music is indispensable because my films could practically be silent movies, the dialogue counts for relatively little, and so the music underlines actions and feelings more than the dialogue. I've had him write the music before shooting, really as a part of the screenplay itself."

Quentin Tarantino, who had been a lifelong fan of Morricone's work, used the composer to provide the score for his film THE HATEFUL EIGHT and this union led to his first Oscar win for Best Original Score. Morricone was also nominated for his original scores for Terence Malick's DAYS OF HEAVEN, Roland Joffe's THE MISSION, Brian De Palma's THE UNTOUCHABLES, Barry Levinson's BUGSY and Giuseppe Tornatore's MALENA. Morricone also received an honorary Oscar in 2007, which was presented by Clint Eastwood who appeared in a trio of Sergio Leone films that Morricone scored. He also collected 11 David di Donatello Awards which is one of Italy's highest film honors.

Tarantino used some of Morricone's compositions for the KILL BILL films, DJANGO UNCHAINED, and INGLORIOUS BASTERDS. In 2016, Morricone mentioned working with Tarantino on THE HATEFUL EIGHT and said it was "perfect…because he gave me no cues, no guidelines. I wrote the score without Quentin Tarantino knowing anything about it, then he came to Prague when I recorded it and was very pleased. So the collaboration was based on trust and a great freedom for me. Perhaps this trust and freedom is the reason why Morricone was able to work with so many high-profile directors in the business. His brilliant body of work includes other great collaborations with prolific directors like Gillo Pontecorvo (THE BATTLE OF ALGIERS), Don Siegel (TWO MULES FOR SISTER SARA), Bernardo Bertolucci (1900), John Boorman (EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC), Edouard Molinaro (LA CAGE AUX FOLLES), John Carpenter (THE THING), Wolfgang Petersen (IN THE LINE OF FIRE), Mike Nichols (WOLF) and Warren Beatty (BULWORTH).

We definitely lost one of the good ones with Morricone's passing. His signature sounds have provided the soundtrack for many films that are a significant part of film history and arguably they are so memorable because of the scores that he provided. I will definitely be revisiting some of his work. What are some of YOUR favorite Ennio Morricone scores?