Ennio Morricone, legendary movie soundtrack composer, has died aged 91

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“Ennio was an icon and icons just don’t go away,” says Hans Zimmer

Ennio Morricone
(Image credit: Grzegorz Galazka\Archivio Grzegorz Galazka\Mondadori via Getty Images)

Legendary Italian composer Ennio Morricone has died at the age of 91, it’s been confirmed. 

Morricone wrote some of the greatest movie soundtracks in history, including the hugely influential score for The Good, the Bad and the Ugly and the music for all of Sergio Leone’s classic Spaghetti Westerns.

There were soundtracks for countless other Hollywood movies, too - The Thing, The Mission, The Untouchables and Mission to Mars to name just a few. Having won an Honorary Academy Award in 2007, Morricone finally received his first Best Original Score Oscar in 2016 for his work on Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight.

Fellow film composer Hans Zimmer was among the first to pay tribute to Morricone, calling him an “icon” in an interview with BBC Breakfast.

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Ben Rogerson
Ben Rogerson
Deputy Editor

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.