Rich Thorne was born in New York City, but his life took a significant turn when he moved to Los Angeles at the age of ten. This move would ultimately shape his future in the film industry.
After graduating with a degree from the Film School at Cal State Northridge, Thorne began his career as an editor and compositor for The Post Group. Working with various companies, including Ampex Corp, Quantel Corp, and Abekas Video Systems, Thorne designed and built the early predecessors to today's CG compositing and graphics systems.
Thorne's work allowed television shows like Star Trek: The Next Generation, Max Headroom, and Pee-wee's Playhouse to be shot on film and have their visual effects composited on video. This innovation made it possible to bring high-end visual effects to the television industry at a significantly lower cost and with faster turnaround times compared to traditional optical visual effects techniques.
In 1984, Star Trek veterans approached Thorne and The Post Group to recreate select VFX shots from the film Star Trek: Wrath of Khan. After successfully replicating the shots, The Post Group completed the work and was awarded all the VFX work on ST:TNG and subsequent Star Trek series.
Thorne eventually left The Post Group to form Digital Magic and continued the Star Trek VFX work there. During his tenure, The Post Group and Digital Magic were known for their work on hundreds of high-tech national commercials and music videos for major recording artists, including Michael Jackson, Paul McCartney, Madonna, Prince, and Joni Mitchell.
Thorne also taught a course called "Techniques of Visual Effects for Television" at UCLA from 1984 to 1995. From 1996 to 2006, Thorne was Senior Vice President of Production at 20th Century Fox. During this time, he directed films, including A Midsummer Night's Dream, Dude, Where's My Car, X-Men, Dr. Dolittle 2, and the critically acclaimed independent feature, Mother Ghost.
Mother Ghost won Thorne two Best Director awards and also won Thorne and the film's star, Mark Thompson, several Best Narrative Feature awards. Thorne continued to work in the film industry, directing 2nd Unit action units for 20th Century Fox on several films and serving as Visual Effects Supervisor and 2nd Unit Director on others.
As of June 2016, Thorne is the Chair of the Producing Department at the Los Angeles campus of the New York Film Academy. He is a current member of the Director's Guild of America and the Producer's Guild of America.
