Saturday, May 21, 2005

The Scream

For many years now Hollywood sound effects guys have been using a stock recording of a scream in lots and lots of movies. Knicknamed the "Wilhelm scream", it's one of those obscure pieces of movie trivia that the media occasionally brings up.

Well, The Times has gone one better and discovered who originally made the scream that has appeared in more than 114 movies, up to and including Revenge of the Sith- it's Sheb Wooley, a character actor and novelty singer- best known for the song Purple People Eater- who sadly passed away in 2003, apparently unaware that it was his scream which has featured in all the Star Wars movies, the Indiana Jones Trilogy, SinCity, two of the Lord of the Rings movies, Toy Story, and Reservoir Dogs to name but a few.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Actually, it was Ben Burtt who did the detective work. http:www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/wilhelm