Composer Ennio Morricone has his day

By Stone Martindale Dec 14, 2006, 23:37 GMT

Italian composer Ennio Morricone EPA/CLAUDIO ONORATI

Ennio Morricone, the legendary Italian film composer and recipient of five Academy Award nominations (no wins) for original score for films "Days of Heaven,""The Mission,""The Untouchables,""Bugsy" and "Malena,"  is finally getting his Oscar ®.

A son of Rome, Morricone will receive an honorary Oscar ® at the Feb. 25th awards.

In announcing the award Wednesday via press release, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences cited the Italian composer's "magnificent and multifaceted contributions to the art of film music."

Morricone, 78, has composed the scores of more than 500 films and TV series. over a 45-year career.

Although only 30 of his films were the Western gene, his work is instantly recognizable in the popular soundtracks of the classic Italian spaghetti westerns The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, directed by Sergio Leone, 1966 and Once Upon a Time in the West, also by Leone in 1968.

Among his numerous scores and achievements, Morricone's recent work and haunting scores for The Mission, directed by Roland Joffé, 1986, The Untouchables, directed by Brian DePalma, 1987, Cinema Paradiso directed by Giuseppe Tornatore, 1988, and Lolita, directed by Adrian Lyne, 1997 have all been critically acclaimed.

Morricone said through his publicist to Italian new outlet Sky TG24 TV that he was very thankful for the recognition.

"I certainly did not expect anything of the sort, by now with great tranquillity and peace of mind I had given up on this," he told Italy's Sky TG24 TV. "This is a great, very important recognition, which I deem of great value."