ROME – The Oscar-winning composer, Ennio Morricone, has died at the age of 91 in the clinic of ‘Campus Bimedico’, having suffered from a bad fall last week which broke his femur. Known simply as ‘maestro’, the musician was the creator of famous cinema soundtracks, such as in ‘For a Fistful of Dollars’, ‘Once Upon a Time in America’, ‘Mission’, and ‘New Cinema Paradis’, with the Italian also composing for the spaghetti Westerns that made Clint Eastwood a star.

  A private funeral will be held "in respect of the feeling of humility that has always inspired the acts of his existence," said the family through friend and lawyer, Giorgio Assumma, as quoted from Il Fatto Quotidiano. 

  Born in 1928, from 1946 until 2020 Morricone composed more than 100 classical pieces in the Italian genre, and collaborated with directors such as Sergio Leone, Duccio Tessari, and Sergo Corbucci, as well as composing for numerous Hollywood directors including John Carpenter, Oliver Stone, and Quentin Tarantino.

  Up multiple times for nominations, Morricone received an honorary Oscar in 2007, and went on to win in 2016 for Quentin Tarantino's 'The Hateful Eight'.

  The Italian health Minister, Roberto Speranza, tweeted on Monday with: “Goodbye Maestro. Thanks for the emotions you gave us.”

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