What Ever Happened to Billy Thorpe ?

I had somebody ask me that over the weekend, and it made me wonder who else might be asking that same question ...so I decided to do a brief re-cap of Billy Thorpe, brief, because he really did have a full career and there's a lot to his story, and it's too long to cover all of it in a blog.  But for starters...He was born in England, and grew up in Australia.  When he was 10, Billy Thorpe began making regular musical appearances on Australian TV.  He and his band, The Aztecs, had a #1 hit in Australia when he was just 18 years old (1964).  Then he went bankrupt in 1969.  In 1974 he was credited with playing a show in a local Tavern, and playing loud enough to kill an aquarium full of fish upstairs!  He came to America in 1976, recorded "Children of the Sun" as part of what they called  a "Space Opera" .. and in the 80's composed music scores for TV shows "Star Trek: The Next Generation" .. "Columbo" .. and "Eight is Enough".  Then he started a Toy company, and later he joined Mick Fleetwood's band "The Zoo".  He returned to Australia to be elected to the Australian Hall of Fame in 1991.  Skipping way ahead, he began working on an album in 2006 with a Moroccan Symphony, returned to Sydney to produce it, and sadly died of a myocardial infarction in 2007 before finishing it.  He was posthumously awarded the "Member of the Order of Australia" award in 2007 and in 2010 Sony completed and released his album "Tangier."  So if you've ever wondered "what ever happened to Billy Thorpe..."  there's a start.