- Born
- Died
- Height1.63 m
- A classmate of director Sergio Leone with whom he would form one of the great director/composer partnerships (right up there with Eisenstein & Prokofiev, Hitchcock & Herrmann, Fellini & Rota), Ennio Morricone studied at Rome's Santa Cecilia Conservatory, where he specialized in trumpet. His first film scores were relatively undistinguished, but he was hired by Leone for Một Nắm Đô La (1964) on the strength of some of his song arrangements. His score for that film, with its sparse arrangements, unorthodox instrumentation (bells, electric guitars, harmonicas, the distinctive twang of the jew's harp) and memorable tunes, revolutionized the way music would be used in Westerns, and it is hard to think of a post-Morricone Western score that doesn't in some way reflect his influence. Although his name will always be synonymous with the spaghetti Western, Morricone has also contributed to a huge range of other film genres: comedies, dramas, thrillers, horror films, romances, art movies, exploitation movies - making him one of the film world's most versatile artists. He has written nearly 400 film scores, so a brief summary is impossible, but his most memorable work includes the Leone films, Gillo Pontecorvo's Cuộc Chiến Giành Độc Lập (1966) , Roland Joffé's Sứ Mệnh (1986), Brian De Palma's Không Thể Mua Chuộc (1987) and Giuseppe Tornatore's Rạp Chiếu Bóng Thiên Đường (1988), plus a rare example of sung opening credits for Pier Paolo Pasolini's Uccellacci e uccellini (1966).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Michael Brooke <michael@everyman.demon.co.uk>
- SpouseMaria Travia(October 13, 1956 - July 6, 2020) (his death, 4 children)
- ParentsLibera MorriconeMario Morricone
- Frequently used female voices as instruments blended with his lush orchestrations
- Composed music for Sergio Leone's films
- Heavy use of trumpets and classical guitar
- Used very simple but effective musical themes
- It's been felt by some that he was deprived of a possible Academy Award when the U.S. distributor of Sergio Leone's Nước Mỹ Một Thời (1984) failed to file the paperwork so the score could be considered for nomination. This score is still regarded as one of his best.
- Refused to move to Hollywood on several occasions, despite being offered a villa by a studio more than once.
- Frequently uses Edda Dell'Orso to provide haunting wordless vocals on his film scores.
- At age 87, Ennio Morricone became the oldest winner of a competitive Academy Award in 2016 (Best Original Score for Tám Hận Thù (2015)), until just two years later, when James Ivory was the new oldest competitive award winner at age 89 in 2018 (Best Original Screenplay for Gọi Em Bằng Tên Anh (2017)).
- Despite his legendary reputation, and almost sixty year long film composing career, he only won one competitive Oscar, although he had been nominated for composing on five previous films between 1979 and 2001, before his 2016 win for Tám Hận Thù (2015).
- I'm not linked to one genre or another. I like to change, so there's no risk of getting bored. I enjoy all sorts of films and I don't consider myself a horror fan, although I do like Dario Argento's and John Carpenter's movies.
- You can't save a bad movie with a good score.
- I definitely felt that I should have won for Sứ Mệnh (1986). Especially when you consider that the Oscar-winner that year was 'Round Midnight (1986), which was not an original score. It had a very good arrangement by Herbie Hancock, but it used existing pieces. So there could be no comparison with "The Mission". [2001]
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