Film Music Reporter

Riz Ortolani has passed away at age 87. The Italian composer scored around 200 films both in home country, as well as the United States, England and Germany. He received two Academy Awards for the original songs More from 1962’s Mondo cane and Till Love Touches Your Life from the 1970 western Madron. He was also Golden Globe-nominated for his Madron song, as well as the title song from Buena Sera, Mrs. Campbell and his score for the Ingrid Bergman- and Shirley MacLaine-starring 1964 comedy The Yellow Rolls-Royce. He won a Golden Globe for the song Forget Domani from the same film. His score for Mondo cane also earned him a Grammy nomination. His other film scoring credits include 1964’s The 7th Dawn starring William Holden, the 1966 British comedy The Spy with the Cold Nose and the 1965 western The Glory Guys. In recent years, his music was chosen by Quentin Tarantino and used in the director’s Kill Bill features, as well as Inglorious Basterds and Django Unchained. In 2013, Ortolani was honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award at the Ghent Film Festival. The composer died in Rome due to complications with bronchitis.