The Italian born Morricone is best known for his prolific film work scoring music for more than 500 films over nearly 60 years. He became internationally known for his collaboration on "spaghetti westerns" directed by his countryman Sergio Leone and starring Clint Eastwood - A Fistful of Dollars, For a Few Dollars More and The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. The most enduring image of Morricone's work came in the latter film with the Mexican standoff at the end of the film with Eastwood, Eli Wallach and Lee Van Cleef. It is one of those scenes best viewed in a crowded theater. Under the circumstances this will have to do.
Among the other many other films Morricone scored were 1900, Excorist II: The Heretic, Days of Heaven, The Thing, Once Upon a Time in America (which reunited him with Leone), The Mission, The Untouchables, Cinema Paradiso, Bugsy and Malena.
Astonishingly, Morricone never won a competitive Oscar until 2016 when he returned to his Western roots scoring Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight at the age of 87 making him the oldest person to do so. Well, better late than never.
But Oscar or no Oscar, Morricone has composed the soundtrack of our collective cinematic experience. R.I.P.
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