Earle H. Hagen

Earle H. Hagen, who co-wrote jazz classic "Harlem Nocturne" dies at 88

Earle H. Hagen, who co-wrote the jazz classic "Harlem Nocturne" and composed memorable themes for "The Andy Griffith Show," "I Spy," "The Mod Squad" and other TV shows, died Monday night. He was 88.

Hagen, who is heard whistling the folksy tune for "The Andy Griffith Show," died at his home in Rancho Mirage, his wife said.

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 Lionel Newman 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, U.S.M.C."

Born July 9, 1919, in Chicago, Hagen began playing the trombone while 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.

He and Dick Rogers wrote "Harlem Nocturne" for Noble in 1939. It has been covered many times since and served as the theme music for "Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer" television series in 1984.

After retiring from TV work in 1986, Hagen taught a workshop in film and television scoring.

He also wrote three books on scoring, including 1971's "Scoring for Films," one of the earliest textbooks on the subject. His 2002 autobiography was titled "Memoirs of a Famous Composer _ Nobody Ever Heard Of."