A sad day for anyone who loves the movies. Ennio Morricone is dead.

The composer of over 500 film and television scores, he was likely the most prolific film composer of all time.

Although he has always been very popular in America, and around the world, with tributes pouring in over the decades from both pop and classical artists, acknowledgment from the Hollywood establishment came only fairly recently. He received a star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame in 2016, the same year he won his only competitive Academy Award, for his score to Quentin Tarantino’s “The Hateful Eight.” By then, he was 87 years-old. (He was nominated five other times, the first in 1979.) Earlier, he received an honorary Oscar, for lifetime achievement, in 2007.

Of course, Morricone never needed Hollywood to confirm his greatness. He churned out score after score from his home in Rome, and always supplied his own orchestrations – by no means standard practice in the film industry. The sheer volume of his output ensured that he left his mark on nearly every genre, but none more indelibly than the western. His collaborations in the form with director Sergio Leone – especially “A Fistful of Dollars,” “For a Few Dollars More,” “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,” and “Once Upon a Time in the West” – made him internationally famous.

His music for “The Mission,” “The Untouchables,” and “Cinema Paradiso” also remains popular. His melodies are much appropriated by figure skaters, television commercials, and by the movies themselves. His music has been quoted or reused in over 150 films, in which he has had absolutely no involvement. Even in instances in which the movies were absolutely atrocious, Morricone could be counted on to draw on his unfailing professionalism, infusing the ridiculous with dramatic tension and often heartbreaking lyricism.

No word on whether or not he was able to follow through on his commitment to write music for the 2026 Olympic Games in Milano Cortina.

Morricone was 91 years-old. One of the last of the legends is gone.

“The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”

“The Mission”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L41oGXgVmZg

Morricone conducts “Cinema Paradiso”