Ennio Morricone was born in 1928 in the Italian capital of Rome and has died at the age of 91, according to the Italian news agency Ansa. He started playing the trumpet at an early age and studied at the renowned Santa Cecilia Conservatory of Music under the composer Goddredo Petrassi.

Ennio Morricone was one of the world's most famous film music composers. His most famous work is the music for Sergio Leone's so-called "spaghetti western" films: For a Handful of Dollars (1964), For A Few Dollars More (1965), The Good, The Bad, The Fool (1966), Harmonica - A Revenge (1968) and Ducka, crap boot (1971).

"Was asked"

In 2019, the Culture News did a telephone interview with Ennio Morricone, who then answered why he started with film music:

- I was simply asked to do it - and then I did. I have never had to look for a job, but because you are your own composer you get your job by either making yourself a name - or having a reputation for doing a good job. So was the radio and television jobs.

Over 500 films

During his lifetime, Ennio Morricone composed music for over 500 films from countries around the world - more recently he has written music for, among other things, Quentin Tarantino's film The Hateful Eight, for which he was awarded an Oscar in 2015.

In 2010 he was awarded the Polar Prize and three years earlier he received an honorary Oscar for his contribution to the film music.

Morricone wrote his first concert works in the late 50's and then worked as a composer for the Italian broadcaster RAI. In 1961, he began his career as a film composer by setting music for Luciano Salces Il federale.