Oscar-winning Italian composer Ennio Morricone, who created the famous 'coyote howl' theme for the iconic Western The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and soundtracks for classic Hollywood gangster movies—such as The Untouchables and Once Upon A Time In America—died on Monday at age 91.
Morricone died at a hospital in Rome from complications following a recent fall in which he broke a leg.
Morricone, who produced more than 400 original scores for feature films, also produced the original soundtrack for Quentin Tarantino film, The Hateful Eight.
Morricone won the Oscar for his work in the Tarantino film in 2016. And while accepting the award, he said, “There is no great music without a great film that inspires it.”
He has worked closely with the late Italian film director Sergio Leone.
Morricone was known for crafting tracks using just a few notes. He has been credited with reinventing music for Western movies.
A memorable track by Morricone is the harmonica played in Once Upon a Time in America, which is instantly associated with the film.
Born in Rome on November 10, 1928, Morricone, after studying trumpet and composition at the Conservatory of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in the Italian capital, started working as a trumpet player and then as an arranger for record companies.
Morricone received his first Oscar nomination for the original score with Days Of Heaven, a 1978 movie by US director Terence Malick.
