On This Day: The world said goodbye to Sergio Leone

It is 30 years to the day since the world-famous director - and ardent Roma fan - Sergio Leone passed away.

Leone, the mastermind behind films including 'The Good, The Bad and The Ugly', was born in Trastevere in the Italian capital in 1929, and would grow up to become one of the most decisive and dominant influences on western cinema.

His films - often accompanied by the stirring musical compositions of another Giallorossi supporter, Ennio Morricone - would go on to become huge commercial and critical successes, and inspire and influence the generations of film-makers that would follow.

"I can’t imagine doing something as perfect as the closing sequence in 'The Good, The Bad And The Ugly,'" Quentin Tarantino once said.

"I will always try to reach that, but I don’t think I will ever get there. It is just so cinematically perfect.”

A regular collaborator with Clint Eastwood (the Italian director was perhaps most responsible for turning the actor into an icon of American culture), Leone's most memorable works came in the field of spaghetti westerns - with 'A Fistful of Dollars' and 'For a Few Dollars More' also becoming celebrated hits.

His last film, 'Once Upon a Time in America' (1984), was a sprawling epic charting the rise and fall of two immigrants in post-World War One New York.

He turned down the opportunity to direct 'The Godfather' in order to pursue the project - his original director's cut remains lauded as a classic of the genre.

But alongside his achievements in his field, Leone was a huge Roma fan - and a long-time season ticket holder.

"I am an inveterate Romanista," he admitted in an interview in 1984. "With a wife and children who are absolutely mad about football."

In another interview, he added: "I am a big fan who pretends he isn't really. There are a lot of fans in my family so I listen to a lot of arguments [about the game]. But I don't really like the fans who talk too much. I prefer the sportsmen themselves, who focus on what they can do rather than bemoan bad luck or the mistakes of others.

"Obviously I have a season ticket and I go regularly to the stadium."

A titan of western cinema, Leone passed away five years after the release of 'Once Upon a Time in America'. Thirty years on, his titanic legacy remains.