Ken Thorne

Ken Thorne was a composer who created scores for dozens of film and television productions.

A native of England, Thorne began playing piano at age five and was a professional musician by 15. He began composing for film with several British pictures of the early 1960s, including Three on a Spree, Ring-Ding Rhythm! and the Beatles' second movie, Help!

He won a Grammy Award for his work on Help! and an Oscar for the 1966 release A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. His other feature film credits included The Monkees' comedy Head, Superman II and Superman III. In the early 1970s he began composing for television, and over the next 30 years he provided music for numerous series, miniseries and telefilms. His credits included Great Expectations, Return to Lonesome Dove, Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story, Mary, Mother of Jesus, and Marco Polo.

In 1996 he received an Emmy nomination for the song 'For a Love Like You," from the made-for-TV movie A Season of Hope.

Thorne died July 9, 2014, in West Hills, California. He was 90.