The WILHELM Scream (Hollywood's meest gebruikte angstkreet)
Aaaaaaaarrrrrrrrgggggghhh!!
HIS voice has been heard in more than 114 Hollywood films from classic westerns to blockbusters including Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, but his identity has remained a mystery for more than 50 years.
The actor whose scream became the most prolific sound effect in film history because of a running joke among sound editors is unmasked in The Times today.
Sheb Wooley, who died in 2003, was a little-known character actor and novelty singer, but his talent for producing bloodcurdling cries has become part of film history. A scream recorded in 1951 for the Gary Cooper film Distant Drums has appeared in all six episodes of the Star Wars franchise, three Indiana Jones films, two of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, Toy Story and Reservoir Dogs.
The sound effect was used extensively by Warner Bros as a stock scream during the 1950s and 1960s, but it took off when a pair of film students competed to see how many times they could insert the scream.
Ben Burtt, who has recently left Lucasfilm to work for the animation studio Pixar, named the stock cry the Wilhelm Scream after a character in a 1950s western who has the yell dubbed over his voice when he is struck in the leg by an arrow.
He and Richard Anderson, a fellow sound editor, vowed to put it in as many films as they could. They were surprisingly successful, and other sound editors have continued the joke. It has appeared in Batman Returns and Aladdin, and over the next few weeks millions of British filmgoers will hear it in Kingdom of Heaven, Star Wars Episode III and Sin City.
No one knew the identity of the screamer for 50 years until Mr Burtt found a sheet of paper listing the names of actors who had recorded miscellaneous sound for Distant Drums. Of the four names listed the most likely was Wooley, but Mr Burtt was unable to confirm the story because Wooley had died of leukaemia. The name was finally confirmed this week when The Times contacted Linda Dotson, Wooley’s widow.
“He always used to joke about how he was so great about screaming and dying in films,” she said. “I did know that his scream had been in some films, the older westerns, but I did not know about Star Wars and all. He would have got such a kick out of this. He would say, ‘I may be old but I’m still in the movies’.”
Wooley, best known for his 1958 novelty hit Purple People Eater, arrived in Hollywood in the 1950s. He played a villain in High Noon and the scout Pete Nolan in the television series Rawhide. The Wilhelm scream achieved cult status after another sound technician, Steve Lee, published its history on his Hollywood Lost and Found website.
Mr Burtt, who became fascinated with sound effects as a child, said: “When I was a film student I decided to put some of my favourite sound effects in my movies. Richard Anderson and I started putting them in films we worked on and it became a case of one-upmanship.” The joke escalated when sound enthusiasts spread the word over the internet and directors such as Quentin Tarantino decided to use it.
According to Mr Lee’s website, Peter Jackson, the director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy, was so delighted by the joke when his sound editor slipped a Wilhelm into a battle in the second film that he asked for it to be added to the third instalment as well.
Mr Burtt has added the scream to every film he has worked on except three documentaries about space shuttles, but now he has decided to stop.
In the latest Star Wars film, the Wilhelm appears in the first ten minutes, when a laser blast hits a droid gun, killing its gunner.
Bron: Timesonline.co.uk
'WILHELM SCREAM'
LIJST MET FILMS WAARIN DE 'WILHELM SCREAM' VERWERKT IS:
1950s
Distant Drums (1951, the original use of the sound. Used when a character is eaten by an alligator and when three Indians are shot.)
Charge at Feather River (1953, the scream is uttered by the character Wilhelm, who gave his name to the scream, as well as by several other characters.)
The Command (an indian is shot)
Them! (1954)
A Star Is Born (1954 version with Judy Garland)
In the Land of the Pharaohs (1955) (the scream is emitted from inside a crocodile that has just eaten a man)
The Sea Chase
Helen of Troy
1960s
Sergeant Rutledge
PT 109 (1963)
Harper
The Green Berets (1968)
The Wild Bunch
1970s
Chisum
Impasse
The Scarlet Blade
Hollywood Boulevard
1980s
The Big Brawl
Swamp Thing
Poltergeist
Howard the Duck
Spaceballs (1987)
Willow
Always
Three Fugitives
1990s
Legion of Iron
Beauty and the Beast
Cabin Boy
Mom and Dad Save the World
Aladdin
Reservoir Dogs
Matinee
Evening Class
A Goofy Movie
Toy Story
Dante's Peak
Hercules (1997)
The Fifth Element
Titanic (1997)
Small Soldiers
2000s
Thirteen Days
The Kid
Just Visiting
Tomcats
Osmosis Jones
Planet of the Apes (2001)
The Majestic
Wet Hot American Summer
Life or Something Like It
The Salton Sea
Spider-Man (2002)
Scorched
Confessions of a Dangerous Mind
Kill Bill
Under the Tuscan Sun
Hellboy
The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
Looney Tunes: Back In Action
Team America: World Police
Harold & Kumar Go To White Castle
Sin City
Family Guy
Kingdom of Heaven
Star Wars: Clone Wars
Zie voor volledige lijst: http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm.html
