Ennio Morricone

One of the most celebrated and influential film composers in the history of the medium, Ennio Morricone penned the iconic themes for such films as "The Good, The Bad and the Ugly" (1967), "Days of Heaven" (1978), "The Mission" (1986), "The Untouchables" (1987) and "Cinema Paradiso" (1988). The "spaghetti Westerns" of Sergio Leone and others helped introduce Morricone to global audiences, and his music - an arresting blend of orchestra, folk instruments, elements of pop and rock music and a wall of offbeat sounds ranging from vocal choruses to clanging bells, gunshots and whip cracks - helped to make him an international sensation. Morricone was adept at nearly every musical approach, from wistful melodies in "Paradiso" and "Bugsy" (1992) to thunderous suspense in "The Untouchables" to jazz, swing, bossa nova, proto-electronica, rock and avant-garde. In the five decades of his busy career, he garnered countless admirers and devoted imitators, all of whom paid fervent tribute to a composer whose talents were vast, far-reaching and altogether timeless. Even late in his career, Morricone was acclaimed as one of the greats, winning an Academy Award for his score to Quentin Tarantino's western drama "The Hateful Eight" (2015).