Sergio Leone

The trilogy consists of "A Fistful of Dollars" (1964), "For a Few Dollars More" (1965), and "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly" (1966), all starring Clint Eastwood and scored by Ennio Morricone. Though marketed as a trilogy, the three films do not share a continuous plot, and Eastwood plays different characters in each.

Leone's "A Fistful of Dollars" was an unauthorized adaptation of Kurosawa's samurai film "Yojimbo" (1961), and Kurosawa sued for copyright infringement. The case was settled out of court, with Kurosawa reportedly receiving the Japanese distribution rights to Leone's film and a percentage of its worldwide box office.

Leone's last completed film was "Once Upon a Time in America" (1984), an epic gangster saga spanning several decades, starring Robert De Niro and James Woods. The film was notoriously cut by over 90 minutes for its initial U.S. release; Leone died in 1989 while preparing a film about the Siege of Leningrad.

Nearly all of Leone's films were scored by the Italian composer Ennio Morricone, whose music for the Dollars Trilogy and "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) became iconic. Morricone's use of whistling, electric guitars, coyote howls, and wordless soprano vocals redefined the sound of the western genre.