Composer of "Andy Griffith" Theme Dead at 88

Earle H. Hagen, who composed memorable themes for "The Andy Griffith Show," "I Spy," "The Mod Squad," and other TV shows, died Monday.  He was 88.

Hagen, who is heard whistling the folksy tune for "The Andy Griffith Show," died at his home in California, his wife, Laura, said Tuesday.  He had been in ill health for several months.

During his long musical career, Hagen performed with the top bands of the swing era, composed for movies and television, and wrote one of the first textbooks on movie composing.

He and Dick Rogers were nominated for an Academy Award for best music scoring for the 1960 Marilyn Monroe movie "Let's Make Love."

For television, he composed original music for more than 3,000 episodes, pilots and TV movies, including theme songs for "That Girl," "The Dick Van Dyke Show" and "Gomer Pyle, USMC."

Born in 1919 in Chicago, Hagen moved to Los Angeles as a child where he began playing the trombone in junior high school.  He became so proficient that he graduated early from Hollywood HIgh School and at 16 was touring with big bands.  He played trombone with Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey and arranged for and played with Ray Noble's orchestra. 

In 1941, Hagen became a staff musician for CBS, but the next year, he enlisted in the military.  After the war, he worked as a composer and orchestrator for 20th Centure Fox studios on dozens of movies, including another Monroe classic, "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."  In the 1950's he and Herbert Spencer formed an orchestra partnership that also wrote music for television, including the Danny Thomas hit "Make Room for Daddy."  Later, he worked as musical director for producer Sheldon Leonard, sometimes working on as many as five shows a week.

After retiring from TV work in 1986, Hagen taught a workshop in film and television scoring.  He also wrote 3 books on scoring, including 1971's "Scoring for Films," one of the earliest textbooks on the subject.  His 2002 autobigraphy was titled "Memoirs of a Famous Composer -- Nobody Ever Heard Of."