Ennio Morricone Biography

Italian composer Ennio Morricone was known for his film scores, especially the 1960s westerns of Sergio Leone that starred Clint Eastwood.

Morricone was nominated for an Oscar six times, winning just once — for Quentin Tarantino‘s The Hateful Eight (2015, starring Kurt Russell). Eight years before, Morricone was given an honorary Oscar for his body of work.

He began composing film scores at the beginning of the 1960s, and his collaborations with Leone made Morricone internationally famous. His spare and distinctive score for The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (1966) became a cinema classic.

Morricone was also known for the scores of The Battle of Algiers (1966), Once Upon a Time in America (1984) and Cinema Paradiso (1988).

Extraordinarily prolific, “The Maestro” scored more than 500 films during his long career, choosing to work in Europe more than Hollywood.

Morricone earned Oscar nominations for Days of Heaven (1978), The Mission (1986, starring Robert De Niro), The Untouchables (1987, starring Kevin Costner), Bugsy (1992, starring Warren Beatty) and Maléna (2000).