{{Short description|Italian architect and designer}} {{more citations needed|date=December 2009}} {{Infobox person | name = Carlo Simi | image = Carlo Simi 1966.jpg | caption = Carlo Simi in 1966 | birth_date = {{birth date|1924|11|07|df=y}} | birth_place = Viareggio, Tuscany | death_date = {{death date and age|2000|11|26|1924|11|07|df=y}} | death_place = Roma, Italy | occupation = Architect, production designer and costume designer | awards = {{plainlist| * Nastro d'argento alla migliore scenografia (1985) * David di Donatello for Best Production Design (1992) }} }}

'''Carlo Simi''' (7 November 1924 &ndash; 26 November 2000) was an Italian architect<!--HIS TRUE PROFESSION-->, 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'' Simi also built the town of 'El Paso' in the Almería desert for Leone's second Western, ''For a Few Dollars More''. Built around a massive bank, with vistas of the Tabernas Desert visible between buildings, the set still exists, as a tourist attraction called "Mini Hollywood".<ref>{{cite book |last1=Frayling |first1=Christopher |authorlink1=Christopher Frayling |title=Spaghetti Westerns: Cowboys and Europeans from Karl May to Sergio Leone |year=2006 |orig-date=1981 |publisher=I.B. Tauris |location=New York, United States |isbn=1-84511-207-5 |page=ix |chapter=Preface}}</ref> Simi played the bank manager in that film: it was his only acting role.<ref>{{cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LFRuBwAAQBAJ&pg=PA19 |title=The Clint Eastwood Westerns |first=James L. |last=Neibaur |publisher=Rowman & Littlefield |date=12 March 2015 |page=19 |isbn=9781442245044}}</ref> He also designed the Sad Hill Cemetery for the last scene of ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.eldiario.es/canariasahora/filmkino/CEMENTERIO-SAD-HILL_6_848025208.html |title=El cementerio de Sad Hill |date=19 December 2018 |access-date=3 January 2019 |newspaper=El Diario |language=es}}</ref>

Simi died in Rome in 2000. 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. In 2018 he posthumously received the 'Leone in Memoriam' award by the Almería Western Film Festival for the 50 anniversary of ''Once Upon a Time in the West''.<ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.diariodealmeria.es/ocio/Premio-Leone-Memoriam-Carlo-Simi_0_1290771013.html |title=El Premio 'Leone in Memoriam' lo recibe la familia de Carlo Simi |author=D. M. |date=13 October 2018 |access-date=3 December 2018 |newspaper=Diario de Almería |language=es |publisher=Joly Digital}}</ref>

==Filmography== ===As actor=== *''For a Few Dollars More'' (1965) - El Paso Bank Manager (uncredited)

===As costume designer=== * ''Two Gangsters in the Wild West'' (1964) * ''Bullets Don't Argue'' (1964) * ''Minnesota Clay'' (1964) * ''One Hundred Thousand Dollars for Lassiter'' (1966) * ''Django'' (1966) * ''Ringo and His Golden Pistol'' (1966) * ''Texas, Adios'' (1966) * ''The Big Gundown'' (1966) * ''The Good, the Bad and the Ugly'' (1966) * ''Face to Face'' (1967) * ''Day of Anger'' (1967) * ''Once Upon a Time in the West'' (1968) * ''Sabata'' (1969) * ''Revolver'' (1973) * ''Carambola's Philosophy: In the Right Pocket'' (1975) * ''Keoma'' (1976) * ''California (1977 film)'' (1977) * ''Silver Saddle'' (1978) * ''Fun is Beautiful'' (1980)

===As production designer=== * ''The Shortest Day'' (1963) * ''Per il gusto di uccidere'' (1966) * ''A Genius, Two Partners and a Dupe'' (1975) * ''Bianco, rosso e Verdone'' (1981) * ''Once Upon a Time in America'' (1984) * ''They Call Me Renegade'' (1987) * ''Where the Night Begins'' (1991)

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== * {{IMDb name|0799495}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simi, Carlo}} Category:1924 births Category:2000 deaths Category:Italian production designers Category:Italian costume designers Category:David di Donatello winners Category:20th-century Italian architects Category:Male Spaghetti Western actors

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