Legendary Composer Ennio Morricone Dies At Age 91

Legendary film composer Ennio Morricone has died at the age of 91.

Morricone passed away on Monday morning (July 6, 2020) at a clinic in Rome after suffering a fall which caused a hip fracture.

The prolific musician scored more than 500 movies and TV shows, including the iconic soundtrack to The Good, The Bad and the Ugly — one of the many Spaghetti Westerns of the 1960s he did — which saw him inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2009.

Morricone worked in Hollywood with filmmakers such as Don Siegel, Oliver Stone and Warren Beatty and was also presented with an honourary Academy Award in 2007 by Clint Eastwood for his "magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music".

His other legendary film scores include Once Upon a Time in the West, The Mission, Cinema Paradiso, and The Untouchables. His albums have sold, it is estimated, more than 50 million units worldwide.

He said: "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."

Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright paid tribute on Twitter, writing: "Where to even begin with iconic composer Ennio Morricone? He could make an average movie into a must see, a good movie into art, and a great movie into legend. He hasn't been off my stereo my entire life. What a legacy of work he leaves behind. RIP."