Emmy-winning music composer Earle H. Hagen passed away passed away Monday, May 26, at his home in Rancho Mirage, of natural causes. He was 88.

Earle Harry Hagen had been suffering for a few months, his wife Laura told the Associated Press. He died Monday night at his home near San Diego of natural causes.

Born on July 9, 1919, in Chicago, Hagen moved with his family to Los Angeles when he was still a child. He began playing the trombone in junior high school. He graduated from Hollywood High School and at 16 began touring with big bands.

He played with Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Ray Noble. While playing with Noble’s orchestra, he wrote the jazz classic “Harlem Nocturne” in 1939, as a tribute to Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges.

He became a staff musician for CBS in 1941 but interrupted this activity the following year when he enlisted in the military. After the war, he was composer and orchestrator for 20th Century Fox studios on numerous films, including the Marilyn Monroe classic, “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.”

He turned to television in the early 1950s, when he left Fox with partner Herbert Spencer.

He would go on to compose original music for more than 3,000 television shows during his three-decade career. He is well known for having created theme songs to shows such as “I Spy,” “The Andy Griffith Show,” “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” “That Girl” and “The Mod Squad.”

His work on “I Spy,” which starred Bill Cosby and Robert Culp, earned him an Emmy in 1968. In 1960, he had been nominated to an Academy Award with Lionel Newman, as musical director for another Marilyn Monroe film, “Let’s Make Love.”

He also not only wrote the “Andy Griffith” theme, he also whistled it.

“He loved it,” his wife told the AP. “The music just flowed from him, and he would take off one hat and put on another and go on to the next show.”

Hagen married Laura in 2005. Prior to this, he was married for 59 years to Elouise Hagen, who died in 2002. He is also survived by two sons, Deane and James; three stepchildren Rebecca Roberts, Richard Roberts and Rachael Roberts; and four grandchildren.