Composer Morricone didn’t want an Oscar

‘I would have remained in the company of illustrious non-winners’ he says

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updated 7:30 p.m. ET Feb. 8, 2007

ROME - Ennio Morricone hoped he would never get an Oscar.

The 78-year-old Italian composer, who will receive an honorary Academy Award later this month, said Thursday that getting five nominations and no awards would have been “something peculiar, something not to be forgotten — almost better than an accidental Oscar.”

“After five nominations I expected nothing, in fact I hoped I’d remain without an Oscar,” he told reporters at the Foreign Press Association.

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“I would have remained in the company of illustrious non-winners,” Morricone said, singling out Stanley Kubrick and other greats who never won the coveted statuette.

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“I see the Oscar as a little bit of a fluke — even if those who win deserve it,” he said.

“That doesn’t mean that I’m not happy about it,” he added. “I have received so many beautiful, incredible prizes, but there was a little hole. ... Maybe the Oscar fills the hole.”

Morricone has composed more than 400 film scores, including the iconic theme from “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” and other spaghetti Westerns directed by Sergio Leone.

He had original score nominations for “Days of Heaven,” “The Mission,” “The Untouchables,” “Bugsy” and “Malena.”

Morricone will receive the honorary Oscar during the Feb. 25 awards ceremony at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Calif.