Sergio Leone (3 January 1929 - 30 April 1989) was an Italian film director, producer and screenwriter, inseparably linked to the spaghetti western genre he helped create. Born in Rome to film pioneer Vincenzo Leone and actress Edvige Valcarenghi, he was a childhood classmate of future collaborator Ennio Morricone. In a career spanning just seven features, he reshaped the Western with his Dollars Trilogy starring Clint Eastwood and closed with the gangster epic Once Upon a Time in America (1984), now widely regarded as his masterpiece. Directors from Kubrick and Spielberg to Tarantino have cited him as a defining influence.
In August 2024, Sergio Donati (91), screenwriter of Leone's films Once Upon a Time in the West and Duck, You Sucker!, who worked closely with the director, died.
In August 2024, NPR included Leone's films in a series about classic film icons and reminded of their lasting influence on the visual style of the western.
In 2024, fans commemorated the 40th anniversary of the premiere of Leone's last film Once Upon a Time in America, which had its world premiere at the Cannes festival in May 1984.
Documentary filmmaker Sergio Zippel's Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America (2022) won the Italian film award Nastro d'Argento for best documentary film in 2023.
The documentary portrait Sergio Leone: The Italian Who Invented America had its world premiere in the Venice Classics section at the 79th International Film Festival in Venice.
