Italian soundtrack composer Riz Ortolani, who won a Grammy for his \u201cMondo Cane\u201d theme \u201cMore,\u201d and whose wide range of music for movies was featured in three Quentin Tarantino films and on the Dino Risi-directed classic \u201cThe Easy Life\u201d (Il Sorpasso), among dozens of other titles, died in Rome on January 23.<\/p>\n
He was 87. The cause was reportedly due to complications from bronchitis.<\/p>\n
Born on March 25, 1926, as Riziero Ortolani, in Pesaro, Italy, the prolific composer started his career in his early twenties working as a musical arranger for the orchestra of Italian pubcaster RAI, before forming his own orchestra. During the 1950s he and his Riz Ortolani orchestra wound up in Los Angeles and worked at famed night club Ciro\u2019s on the Sunset Strip.<\/p>\n
Ortolani\u2019s career in movie soundtracks started in 1962 with Gualtiero Jacopetti\u2019s seminal creepy exploitation docu \u201cMondo Cane,\u201d which screened at Cannes.<\/p>\n
The \u201cMondo Cane\u201d theme \u201cMore\u201d won a Grammy, was nominated for an Oscar, and over the years has been covered by everyone from Frank Sinatra to Judy Garland to Herb Alpert. <\/p>\n
Ortolani went on to work with many of the top Italian directors including, besides the above mentioned Risi, Vittorio De Sica, Franco Zeffirelli, Carlo Lizzani, Alberto Lattuada, and Pupi Avati, for whom he scored the 2013-2014 TV miniseries \u201cUn Matrimonio\u201d (A Wedding), a recent ratings hit on RAI.<\/p>\n
The soundtrack to Ruggero Deodato\u2019s 1980 cult slasher pic \u201cCannibal Holocaust,\u201d featuring Ortolani\u2019s opening synthesizer theme, is widely purchased.<\/p>\n
Ortolani\u2019s explosive guitar compositions for spaghetti Westerns have featured in Tarantino\u2019s \u201cKill Bill,\u201d in \u201cInglorious Basterds\u201d and \u201cDjango Unchained.\u201d Ortolani\u2019s song \u201cOh My Love,\u201d sung by his wife Katyna Ranieri, was featured in Nicolas Winding Refn\u2019s 2011 pic \u201cDrive.\u201d <\/p>\n
Ortolani, who had established the Riz Ortolani Foundation in Pesaro, offering scholarships to young composers, is survived by Katyna Ranieri, a son and a daughter.