Ennio Morricone

Ennio Morricone, Cavaliere di Gran Croce, was an Italian composer, orchestrator, conductor, and trumpet player whose visionary soundscapes revolutionized cinematic music. Over a dazzling six-decade career, Morricone scored over 400 film and television productions across every genre.

His historic collaboration with director Sergio Leone on the 'Dollars Trilogy'—culminating in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly (1966) and Once Upon a Time in the West (1968)—redefined Western cinema through whistle melodies, coyote calls, cracking whips, and searing electric guitars. He composed equally timeless, heartrending scores for Cinema Paradiso, The Mission, and Quentin Tarantino's The Hateful Eight, for which he won an Academy Award in 2016.