Ben Burtt
Sound
Born July 12, 1948 · 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…
Known For · 40 titles
WALL·E
Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace
Return of the Jedi
Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones
LIGHT & MAGIC
BURN·E
And the Oscar Goes To...
R2-D2: Beneath the Dome
From Puppets to Pixels: The Making of Star Wars Episode II
Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound
Within a Minute: The Making of Star Wars Episode III
SP FX: The Empire Strikes Back
Lincoln: An American Journey
WALL·E's Treasures & Trinkets
The Sound of 'Indiana Jones'
Fog City Mavericks
Under the Helmet: The Legacy of Boba Fett
Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy
George Lucas: Creating an Empire
Star Wars: The Magic & the Mystery
Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema
The Making of 'E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial'
RKO Production 601: The Making of “Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World”
From Star Wars to Jedi: The Making of a Saga
When Star Wars Ruled the World
The Force of Sound
Star Wars: Music by John Williams
The Making of The Empire Strikes Back
Michael Curtiz: The Greatest Director You Never Heard Of
I Am Your Father
A Bucket of Water and a Glass Matte
Robby the Robot: Engineering a Sci-Fi Icon
EditDroid: Rise and Fall
Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001
Films Are Not Released, They Escape
State of the Art: The Pre-Visualization of 'Episode II'
The Dawn of Sound: How Movies Learned to Talk
Wings: Grandeur in the Sky
Amazing! Exploring the Far Reaches of Forbidden Planet
Animation Sound Design: Building Worlds from the Sound Up