Bill Varney

Bill Varney
Bill Varney
Born	Harold William Varney; January 22, 1934; Beverly, Massachusetts, U.S.
Died	April 2, 2011 (aged 77); Fairhope, Alabama, U.S.
Occupation	Sound mixer
Years active	1972–2011
Spouse	Suzanne Varney (1 child)

Harold William Varney (January 22, 1934 – April 2, 2011) was an American motion picture sound mixer. A two-time Academy Award winner, Varney shared the Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing for Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back in 1980^[1] and Raiders of the Lost Ark in 1981.^[2]^[3] Varney also received Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing nominations for his collaborative sound mixing on Dune in 1984^[4] and Back to the Future in 1985.^[3]

Life and career

Varney was born on January 22, 1934, in Beverly, Massachusetts.^[3]

One of Varney's earliest projects was a film focusing on singer Joan Baez during the 1950s.^[3] Baez's father was a physics professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.^[3] Varney relocated to southern California in 1961, where he produced educational films for Encyclopædia Britannica.^[3]

Varney transitioned to film and television sound mixing in 1972.^[3] He worked on approximately 85 productions over the next twenty-five years.^[3] He worked at The Samuel Goldwyn Company for fourteen years, until he joined Universal Pictures in 1985.^[3]

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.^[3] He also received nominations for Dune in 1984 and Back to the Future in 1985.^[3]^[5] Additionally, Varney was nominated an Emmy Award for his sound work on the 1977 television miniseries, Roots.^[3]

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.^[3]

By 1998, he had risen to become the Vice President of Sound Operations for Universal Pictures.^[3] That same year, Varney collaborated on the sound re-editing for the 1958 Orson Welles film, Touch of Evil.^[3] 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.^[3] Rick Schmidlin produced the re-edit for Universal Pictures based on a 58-page lost memo written by Welles a year before the film was released.^[3] Varney spearheaded the sound restoration for the 1998 directors cut re-release of Touch of Evil.^[3] 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.^[3]

Varney retired from Universal Studios in 2001 and moved to Fairhope, Alabama in 2003.^[3]

Varney died on April 2, 2011, of congestive heart failure in Fairhope at the age of 77.^[6] He was survived by his wife, Suzanne, and daughter, Lisa.^[3]