Ben Burtt
Born: 1948-07-12
• Jamesville, New York, USA
Benjamin "Ben" Burtt, Jr. is a sound designer, film editor, director, screenwriter, and voice actor. He has worked as sound designer on various films, including the Star Wars and Indiana Jones film series, E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial, WALL-E, and Star Trek. He is responsible for creating many of the iconic sound effects heard in the Star Wars film franchise, including the binary speech of R2-D2, the lightsaber hum, the sound of the blaster guns, and the heavy-breathing sound of Darth Vader, which he made by breathing into a scuba regulator. Burtt has a reputation for popularizing a sound effect dubbed the "Wilhelm scream", which was taken from a character named Wilhelm in the 1953 film The Charge at Feather River.
Filmography
Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
The Force of Sound
I Am Your Father
And the Oscar Goes To...
EditDroid: Rise and Fall
The Making of the Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Lincoln: An American Journey
Wings: Grandeur in the Sky
Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of
WALL·E's Treasures & Trinkets
Animation Sound Design: Building Worlds from the Sound Up
BURN·E
RKO Production 601: The Making of “Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World”
WALL·E
Fog City Mavericks
No Image
The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk
Robby the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon
Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet
Star Wars: Within a Minute - The Making of Episode III
Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema
George Lucas: Creating an Empire
Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy
When Star Wars Ruled the World
The Sound of 'Indiana Jones'
Films Are Not Released, They Escape
State of the Art: The Pre-Visualization of 'Episode II'
From Puppets to Pixels: Digital Characters in 'Episode II'
R2-D2: Beneath the Dome
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Star Wars: The Magic & the Mystery
The Making of 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'
From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga
Return of the Jedi
The Making of The Empire Strikes Back
Star Wars: Music by John Williams
No Image
A Bucket of Water and a Glass Matte