Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone, born on 10 November 1928 in Rome and died on 6 July 2020 in the same city, was an Italian composer, musician, producer, arranger, and conductor. He signed some of his compositions under the pseudonyms Dan Savio and Leo Nichols.

Globally renowned for his film scores, for which he is considered one of the best composers, he composed over 500 scores for cinema and television between the 1960s and 2020, selling 70 million records. Among his most famous scores are those created for the Dollar Trilogy and the Once Upon a Time Trilogy by his friend Sergio Leone, as well as the original soundtracks for the films La Bataille d'Alger, Théorème, Queimada, Le Clan des Siciliens, Enquête sur un citoyen au-dessus de tout soupçon, L'Oiseau au plumage de cristal, Le Casse, La classe ouvrière va au paradis, L'Attentat, Mon nom est Personne, Peur sur la ville, Salò ou les 120 Journées de Sodome, I… comme Icare, Le Professionnel, Mission, and Les Incorruptibles.

Throughout his career, he won ten David di Donatello awards and eleven Nastro d'Argento awards. In 1995, he was honoured with a Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement, and in 2007, with an Academy Honorary Award for his entire career. Nominated six times for the Academy Award for Best Original Score, he won this award once for Quentin Tarantino's film Les Huit Salopards. He was a full academician of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and a member of the Nuova Consonanza association, dedicated to the dissemination and production of contemporary music in Italy. On 27 December 2017, he became a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the second-highest national honour.