Ken Thorne was born on January 26, 1924 in East Dereham, Norfolk, England. He is known for Superman II (1980), Superman III (1983) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). He was married to Linda Hays. He died on July 9, 2014 in West Hills, Los Angeles, California, USA.ather of Jennifer Coplin, Emily Thorne and Claire Thorne. Oscar-winning British composer and conductor who began work as a big band pianist in the 1940's. Aged 27, he studied composition with private tutors at Cambridge. Thorne had an unexpected chart hit in 1963 when his cover version of Angelo Francesco Lavagnino's "Theme from The Legion's Last Patrol" (Concerto Disperato) reached #4 in the UK charts. He composed the music scores for How I Won the War (1967), The Monkees movie Head (1968), The Magic Christian (1969) and The Ritz (1976). Thorne began composing scores for films in 1948. He was hired for Richard Lester's films Superman II and III with instructions to reuse the themes composed by John Williams from the first film and adapt them for the sequels, also adding some original work. His television work included the theme to the 1964 BBC series R3, and he also scored incidental music for The Persuaders! and The Zoo Gang in the 1970s. His later work included the score for the miniseries Return to Lonesome Dove in 1993. He was considered Richard Lester's composer of choice since their first work together on It's Trad, Dad! (1962), Help! (1965) and A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum (1966). Thorne began his musical career as a pianist with the big bands of England during the 1940s, playing at night clubs and the dance halls. From the 1980s, Ken Thorne mainly focused on his work for TV, working predominantly with director Kevin Connor. At age 27, Thorne decided to seriously study composition with private tutors at Cambridge and later studied the organ for five years in London. When Henry Mancini was scoring Blake Edwards' 1968 film The Party with Peter Sellers, Thorne composed the soundtrack to Inspector Clouseau. He was a British television and film score composer.