Last year a great composer and one of the nicest guys, Ken Thorne, passed away. Ken had worked on many film scores such as The Beatles’ Help!, The Monkees Head, Superman II and Superman III (both starring Christopher Reeve), the Alan Arkin starring Inspector Clouseau, and Tom Selleck’s Lassiter to name a few. I had posted my appreciation for Ken upon his passing, and posted a photo of him that I had taken the last time I saw him a couple of years before at a film composer event at the Dark Delicacies store in Burbank, California.
Recently, one of Ken’s daughters contacted me and asked if they could send my photo to the Motion Picture Academy. The Academy has been gathering photos for their “In Memoriam” section of the Oscars telecast taking place this coming Sunday evening, and had asked the Thorne family for a photo for possible inclusion. I was honored that Ken’s family liked my photo enough for such a prestigious purpose, and was very happy to give my blessing.
The Oscars have many things they try to accomplish, and I was told that there is a chance that Ken could be omitted for the sake of time, but let’s hope not. After all, he won an Oscar for his score to A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum in 1967. He is one of the Academy’s own.
