One of the key figures in the high-tech, Lucas-Spielberg era of modern movie sound design. While a number of special visual effects artists have gained acclaim from fantasy film cognoscenti, the great sound men are relatively unsung. Nonetheless these films would lose much of their magic without their expressive sound effects. Burtt has done extensive sound work on each of George Lucas' landmark "Star Wars" and "Indiana Jones" features. He created the ingenious sound effects which constituted the "voices" of such beloved pop culture icons as R2D2, Chewbacca the Wookie, and E.T. Burtt worked on many of the major fantasy films of the late 1970s and 80s, including Philip Kaufman's remake of "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" (1978), Jim Henson and Frank Oz's "The Dark Crystal" (1982), "Howard the Duck", Ron Howard's Lucas-produced "Willow" and Steven Spielberg's "Always" (1989). In the 1990s, Burtt began working in TV as a writer, editor, and second unit director on various Lucasfilm projects. He also co-directed the Oscar-nominated documentary short "Special Effects" (1996) and garnered his 10th Academy Award nod for his sound effects editing on Lucas' "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace" (1999).
Profession(s):
sound designer, sound effects supervisor, sound rerecording mixer, special sound effects artist, editor, writer, second unit director, director
Sometimes Credited As:
Benjamin P Burtt Jr
Academy Award Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" 1990
Academy Award Best Effects, Sound Effects Editing "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial" 1983
Academy Award Special Achievement in Sound Editing "Raiders of the Lost Ark" 1982
BAFTA Award Best Sound "Star Wars" 1979
Academy Award Special Achievement in Sound Effects "Star Wars" 1978
2008 Once again teamed with Lucas and Spielberg for "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull"
2008 Created the voice of the title character in Pixar's animated film "WALL-E"
2005 Provided sound effects for "Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith"; also voiced captain Lushros Dofine
2005 Re-teamed with Spielberg for "Munich"
2002 Re-teamed with Lucas for "Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones"
1999 Garnered tenth Academy Award nomination for his sound effects editing on "Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace"
1996 Co-directed the Oscar-nominated short documentary "Special Effects"
1992 First TV series credit as an editor and second unit director for ABC's "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles"
1990 Directorial debut, the IMAX documentary "Blue Planet"
1989 Won fourth Oscar for his sound effects work on "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade"
1986 First TV credit as a writer on the short-lived animated children's series "The Great Heep" (ABC)
1982 Received third Academy Award for designing the voice of the title character in Spielberg's "E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial"
1981 First collaboration with director Steven Spielberg as sound designer for Lucas' "Raiders of the Lost Ark"; earned second special achievement Academy Award
1980 Received his first sound design credit for Lucas' "The Empire Strikes Back"
1977 Received a special achievement Academy Award for creating the memorable sounds for "Star Wars"
1976 First film credit, provided additional sound effects for "The Milpitas Monster"
Hired by producer Gary Kurtz to begin developing sound effects for George Lucas' "Star Wars"
Provided sound design for the Grammy Award-winning Raiders of the Lost Ark: The Movie on Record
