Bill Varney, American sound editor (Raiders of the Lost Ark, Back to the Future, Dune) died he was , 77.

Harold William Varney , better known as Bill Varney, was an American motion picture sound mixer. A two time Academy Award winner, Varney shared the Academy Award for Best Sound for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.^[1] Varney also received Academy Award for Best Sound nominations his collaborative sound mixing on Dune in 1984 and Back to the Future in 1985.

(January 22, 1934 – April 2, 2011)


Varney was born on January 22, 1934, in Beverly, Massachusetts.^[1]
One of Varney's earliest projects was a film focusing on singer Joan Baez during the 1950s.^[1] Baez's father was a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[1] Varney relocated to southern California in 1961, where he produced educational films for Encyclopedia Britannica.^[1]
Varney transitioned to film and television sound mixing in 1972.^[1] He worked on approximately 85 productions over the next twenty-five years.^[1] He worked at The Samuel Goldwyn Company for fourteen years, until he joined Universal Pictures in 1985.^[1]
Varney won collaborative back-to-back Academy Awards for Best Sound for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back in 1980 and Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.^[1] He also received nominations for Dune in 1984 and Back to the Future in 1985.^[1] Additionally, Varney won an Emmy Award for his sound work on the 1977 television miniseries, Roots.^[1]
Varney's numerous film credits included The Last Waltz in 1978, Grease in 1978, Ordinary People in 1980, Poltergeist and My Favorite Year, both released in 1982, and Dragonheart in 1996.^[1]
By 1998, he had risen to become the Vice President of Sound Operations for Universal Pictures.^[1] That same year, Varney collaborated on the sound re-editing for the 1958 Orson Welles film, Touch of Evil.^[1] Welles had been replaced from the film during its post-production, and was never allowed to cut Touch of Evil the way he had originally intended.^[1] Film historians led Universal Pictures to a 58-page lost memo written by Welles a year before the film was released.^[1] Varney spearheaded the sound restoration for the 1998 directors cut re-release of Touch of Evil.^[1] Varney used "digital processing to bring the 40-year-old soundtracks to a new level of clarity," according to Walter Murch, who worked as the sound editor and sound mixer for the 1998 re-release.^[1]
Varney retired from Universal Studios in 2001 and moved to Fairhope, Alabama in 2003.^[1]
Varney died on April 2, 2011 of congestive heart failure in Fairhope at the age of 77.^[2] He was survived by his wife, Suzanne, and daughter,

 

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