Sergio Leone
Biography
Sergio Leone
Remarkable:
As children, Leone and composer Ennio Morricone were classmates
Born:
January 3, 1929
Died:
April 30, 1989
As the son of a film-industry pioneer, Leone entered Italian films at 18 and worked for years as an assistant to Italian directors as well as American directors.
Towards the end of the 1950s he started writing screenplays, and began directing after taking over The Last Days of Pompeii (1959) in mid-shoot after its original director fell ill. He chose The Colossus of Rhodes (1961) for his directing debut.
In 1964 Ennio single-handedly invented the "spaghetti Western" with A Fistful of Dollars his remake of Yojimbo starring Clint Eastwood. His next two films - For a Few Dollars More and The Good, the Bad and the Ugly - completed "The Dollars Trilogy", with each film being more financially successful than its predecessor. All three films featured remarkable scores by the Italian composer Ennio Morricone.
Finally, Leone in 1984 created his last masterpiece, Once Upon a Time in America. The film is nearly four hours long, and was badly butchered for American release.
Selected Movies:
- The good, the bad and the ugly (1966)
- Once upon a time in the west (1968)
- Once upon a time in America (1984)
- For a few dollars More (1965)
- A fistful of dollars (1964)
- A fistful of dynamite (1971)
- My name is nobody (1973)
Books:
Christopher Frayling -> Sergio Leone: Something to Do With Death
Michael Carlson -> Sergio Leone (2001)
Oreste De Fornari and Charles Nopar -> Sergio Leone: The Great Italian Dream of Legendary America (1997)
Robert Cumbow -> Once Upon a Time (1991)
