Ken Thorne obit

Composer Ken Thorne Has Died 

He was not on the list.

Ken Thorne, 90, a television and film composer who won an Oscar for scoring the 1966 musical comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” died of natural causes Wednesday at West Hills Hospital & Medical Center, said his wife, Linda.

Thorne arranged and directed incidental music for “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum,” the movie about a conniving slave in ancient Rome that starred Zero Mostel and Phil Silvers.

It was one of several films he worked on with director Richard Lester. He began his Hollywood career writing the incidental score for the Lester-directed Beatles comedy “Help!” (1965), which brought Thorne a Grammy nomination.

“My orders were to only use Beatles music and use their themes and snippets of themes, and I did that,” Thorne told the Daily Breeze in 2013.

Lester later hired him to handle the music for “Superman II” (1980) and “Superman III” (1983). For those films, Thorne rearranged the John Williams themes composed for the original “Superman” in 1978.

His other credits include “Inspector Clouseau” (1968), the Monkees’ comedy “Head” (1968) and “The Magic Christian” (1969), which starred Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr.

Thorne was born in Norfolk, England, on Jan. 26, 1924. He began to study piano when he was 5 and played professionally starting at 15.

He moved permanently to the United States when he started work on the “Superman” films.

In later years, he worked mostly in television, where his credits include the TV movies “The Return of Sherlock Holmes,” “Diana: Her True Story” and “Liz: The Elizabeth Taylor Story.”

Selected filmography

Three on a Spree (1961)

It's Trad, Dad! (1962)

She Knows Y'Know (1962)

Dead Man's Evidence (1962)

Master Spy (1963)

Help! (1965)

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966)

How I Won the War (1967)

Inspector Clouseau (1968)

The Touchables (1968)

Sinful Davey (1969)

The Bed-Sitting Room (1969)

The Magic Christian (1969)

A Talent for Loving (1969)

Hannie Caulder (1971)

Brother Sun, Sister Moon (1973)

Juggernaut (1974)

The Ritz (1976)

Power Play (1978)

Arabian Adventure (1979)

The Outsider (1980)

Superman II (1980)

Wolf Lake (1980)

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1982)

The House Where Evil Dwells (1982)

Superman III (1983)

Lassiter (1984)

The Evil That Men Do (1984)

Finders Keepers (1984)

The Trouble with Spies (1987)

Sunset Grill (1993)

Mary, Mother of Jesus (1999)

In the Beginning (miniseries) (2000)

Santa Jr. (2002)