Ennio Morricone, Composer For THE GOOD, THE BAD, AND THE UGLY and THE HATEFUL EIGHT, Dies at 91

Ennio Morricone, composer of over 500 titles, has passed away at the age of 91

Ennio Morricone, the prolific film composer, has passed away early in the morning of Monday, July 6, in Rome, Italy.

According to Variety, Morricone was rushed to a hospital after enduring a fall that resulted in a hip fracture. He later died while receiving treatment.

“We will always remember, with infinite gratitude, the artistic genius of the Maestro #EnnioMorricone,” the Italian prime minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted out on Monday morning. “It has made us dream, emote, [and] reflect, writing memorable notes that will remain in the history of music and cinema.”

Ricorderemo sempre, con infinita riconoscenza, il genio artistico del Maestro #EnnioMorricone. Ci ha fatto sognare, emozionare, riflettere, scrivendo note memorabili che rimarranno indelebili nella storia della musica e del cinema pic.twitter.com/SNGmJjfJ2H

— Giuseppe Conte (@GiuseppeConteIT) July 6, 2020

A Storied Career

Morricone first started composing music for films in 1961, with Luciano Salce’s Il Federale. Since then Morricone went on to compose some of the most memorable scores in film history, from Sergio Leone’s The Good, The Bad and the Ugly to Brian De Palma’s The Untouchables to Roland Joffé’s The Mission (which earned him his first Oscar nomimation).

Although he gained notoriety through scoring Leone’s numerous Spaghetti Westerns, Morricone was adamant that he wasn’t a single-genre composer. He worked with filmmakers around the world and across numerous genres, from Italian giallo films to U.S. dramas to romances and comedies and the like. Unlike many other film composers of the era, Morricone also “personally orchestrat[ed] every note of his scores”.

IMDb lists Morricone as composer for over 500 titles, spanning feature-length films, shorts, television series, and documentaries. He also has over 340 soundtrack and nearly 170 general music department credits. (As a sidenote, Variety reports that nearly 150 of his composer credits were for works between 1965 and 1973 alone.)

Two of those soundtrack credits were for Quentin Tarantino’s Kill Bill duology, of which Morricone reportedly disliked their use. Tarantino then invited him to compose a song, “Ancora Qui”, for the Django Unchained soundtrack, as well as to compose the score to his 2015 Western The Hateful Eight. The latter would see him go on to win his first competitive Oscar in 2016, at the age of 87. He had previously been awarded an honorary Oscar in 2006 for his body of work – one of only two composers to be bestowed with the award.

Morricone also worked in music beyond the realm of film composition. In his early days he dabbled in pop music, with 1966’s “Se Telefonando” becoming a big hit in Italy. In his later life he wrote many pieces for chamber groups, symphony orchestras, and choral ensembles.

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