'His Music Will Keep Playing In Our Memories': Tributes Roll In For Ennio Morricone

7 July 2020 | 2:55 pm | Staff Writer

“I, Ennio Morricone, am dead."

Tributes are flowing in for legendary composer Ennio Morricone today. 

According to CNN, Morricone passed away at a Rome hospital, age 91, following a fall and subsequent broken leg. 

It's been reported that Morricone's lawyer Giorgio Assumma handed out printed out statements to press following the announcement; a note written by Morricone saying, “I, Ennio Morricone, am dead".

"I am announcing it this way to all my close friends and even to those who have been a bit distant, I say goodbye with much love. It is impossible to name you all." 

Morricone scored over 500 films in his career and was a pioneer of the 'Spaghetti Western' genre alongside longtime collaborator Sergio Leone, working on films like The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, A Fistful Of Dollars, Once Upon A Time In The West and more. 

Other notable scores include The Untouchables, The Mission, The Thing, Cinema Paradiso, Once Upon A Time In America, La Cage aux Folles, The Battle of Algiers, U-Turn and more.

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Morricone won the Academy Award for Best Original Score for Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight. He was awarded the Academy Honorary Award in 2007 for "for his magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music".

See some of the many tributes to Morricone below.