Oscar winner Ennio Morricone, composer of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and The Hateful Eight among others, has passed away at the age of 91. Morricone died early Monday (6 July) in a Rome clinic, where he was taken shortly after suffering a fall that caused a hip fracture, his lawyer Giorgio Asumma told Italian news agency ANSA.
Confirming the music composer's demise, Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte tweeted: “We will always remember, with infinite gratitude, the artistic genius of the Maestro #EnnioMorricone. It made us dream, feel excited, reflect, writing memorable notes that will remain indelible in the history of music and cinema.”
The celebrated Italian composer has given scores for around 500 films and television shows for over 50 years. At least a dozen of them went on to become classics, from The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and Once Upon a Time in the West to The Mission and Cinema Paradiso.
Morricone was nominated six times for the Oscars — for Days of Heaven, The Mission, The Untouchables, Bugsy, Malena and The Hateful Eight, winning for the last of these — and in 2006 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences presented him with an honorary Oscar for “his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music.”
(Inputs: Variety)
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