Remembering Carlo Simi

Carlo Simi was born Giancarlo Simi on November 7, 1924 in Viareggio, Tuscany, Italy. Simi was an Italian architect, production designer and costume designer, who worked frequently with Sergio Leone and Sergio Corbucci, giving their spaghetti westerns a unique look. Most famous for his costume and set designs for “Once Upon a Time in the West” (1968) Simi also built the town of 'El Paso' in the Almería desert for Leone's second Western, “For a Few Dollars More” (1965). Built around a massive bank, with vistas of the Tabernas Desert visible between buildings, the set still exists, as a tourist attraction called "Oasys/Mini Hollywood". Simi appeared in one Euro-western as the bank manager in “For a Few Dollars More” (1965).

 

Simi died in Rome on November 26, 2000 in Rome, Italy. Some of his costumes and set designs were exhibited at the Autry National Center's Museum of the American West in Los Angeles in 2005.

 

Today we remember Carlo Simi on what would have been his 90^th birthday.