A renowned composer has been identified as the man who died on a notorious hiking trail in Sierra Madre.
Mark Smythe, a 53-year-old New Zealander, who worked on horror movies and concert music, has passed away.
On May 9, a rescue team responded to a report of a hiker who had been found unresponsive on the Mount Wilson Trail just north of Rescue Ridge, according to the Sierra Madre Search and Rescue Team.
The crew joined his friends and family, who were performing CPR, while members of the Sierra Madre Fire Department also responded, but he was “determined to be deceased.”
This death marks the second this month after another hiker fell to his death earlier this month. The Sierra Madre Police Department and Arcadia Police Department were also on the scene.
“Sierra Madre Search and Rescue extends our condolences to the family and friends of the deceased man. We also extend our thanks to the man’s friends and other hikers who assisted today,” the authorities noted.
Tributes have poured in on social media since.
“His passion for music, his dedication to his students, and his kindness left a profound mark on all of us who had the privilege of knowing him,” a colleague of the victim from LACM wrote.
“Fly high, my dear friend. Your legacy will continue to resonate through the many lives you touched,” Yail Guerra wrote.
“He was one of those rare people who was always there whenever I needed him — whether it was for advice, a question, or just a chat.
“My films became what they are because of Mark and his incredible gift for music,” another former colleague, who said Smythe worked on four of his movies as a music composer, wrote on Facebook.
Smythe served as chair for the Composing for Visual Media Department, and his score for The Reef: Stalked (Hulu) was nominated for an SCL Award.
“It is a comfort to know that he was doing one of the things he loved, hiking in the hills,” his sister, Pepe Becker, wrote on Facebook.
