Legendary Film Composer Ennio Morricone Dead at 91

Oscar-winning Italian film composer Ennio Morricone has died at the age of 91. The composer behind the classic scores for films like 1966’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, and The Hateful Eight died in Rome on Monday after complications from a recently broken leg.

Morricone is best known for his highly influential scores for Italian director Sergio Leone’s “Spaghetti Westerns” in the ’60s, including the Dollars trilogy starring the mostly silent but deadly Clint Eastwood; 1964’s A Fistful of Dollars, 1965’s For a Few Dollars More, and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly a year later (which also served as the Ramones’ live intro for years).

Morricone won an Oscar in 2016 for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight. Tarantino widely praised Morricone, describing him as his favourite composer.

“When I say favourite composer, I don’t mean movie composer… I’m talking about Mozart, I’m talking about Beethoven, I’m talking about Schubert,” Tarantino said.

Listen to some of Morricone’s most beloved scores below.