Aged 94. A prolific composer, mainly of film music, he wrote the theme tune for M*A*S*H, 'Suicide Is Painless' The words to 'Suicide Is Painless' were written by Michael Altman, who was fourteen years old at the time, and the son of the film's director Robert Altman. The lyrics took him five minutes to write. Robert Altman observed ruefully that his son earned more from those lyrics than he did from the film. | |