Italian film composer Ennio Morricone has died at the age of 91.
During an extraordinary professional career which spanned more than six decades, Morricone composed over 500 scores for cinema and television and over 100 original musical works. He is one of only two film composers in history to have received the honorary Academy Award for his lifetime achievement.
Career highlights include Morricone’s scores for Once Upon A Time In The West, Once Upon A Time In America, A Fistful Of Dollars, The Untouchables, The Mission, and of course his poignant music for the 1988 Cinema Paradiso. Morricone’s score for The Good, The Bad And The Ugly holds the number two position in the Top 200 ranking of best film soundtracks ever composed.
Having received an honorary Oscar in 2007 for his unique contribution to film music, Morricone went on to win one in 2016 for Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. Before his win he had already received Oscar nominations for Days Of Heaven, The Mission, The Untouchables, Bugsy and Malena.
Morricone did not retire from live performance until the age of 90, with his final concerts receiving standing ovations and overwhelming critical acclaim, further cementing his position as one of the most prolific and influential film composers of all time.