Ben Burtt

Born: 1948-07-12, Jamesville, New York, USA

Biography

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

• WALL·E (2008)
• Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace (1999)
• Return of the Jedi (1983)
• Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002)
• BURN·E (2008)
• The Adventures of Young Indiana Jones: Attack of the Hawkmen (1995)
• Destiny in Space (1994)
• Blue Planet (1990)
• WALL·E's Treasures & Trinkets (2008)
• Special Effects: Anything Can Happen (1996)
• I Am Your Father (2015)
• The American Gangster (1992)
• The True Story of Glory Continues (1991)
• Manassas: End of Innocence (2002)
• Animation Sound Design: Building Worlds from the Sound Up (2008)
• Behind the Scenes with King Kong in Special Effects (1996)