Logo

16 Facts About Bill Varney

1.

Harold William Varney was an American motion picture sound mixer.

2.

Bill Varney received Academy Award for Best Sound Mixing nominations for his collaborative sound mixing on Dune in 1984 and Back to the Future in 1985.

3.

Bill Varney was born on January 22,1934, in Beverly, Massachusetts.

4.

One of Bill Varney's earliest projects was a film focusing on singer Joan Baez during the 1950s.

5.

Bill Varney transitioned to film and television sound mixing in 1972.

6.

Bill Varney worked on approximately 85 productions over the next twenty-five years.

7.

Bill Varney worked at The Samuel Goldwyn Company for fourteen years, until he joined Universal Pictures in 1985.

8.

Bill 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.

9.

Bill Varney received nominations for Dune in 1984 and Back to the Future in 1985.

10.

Additionally, Bill Varney was nominated an Emmy Award for his sound work on the 1977 television miniseries, Roots.

11.

That same year, Bill Varney collaborated on the sound re-editing for the 1958 Orson Welles film, Touch of Evil.

12.

Bill Varney spearheaded the sound restoration for the 1998 directors cut re-release of Touch of Evil.

13.

Bill 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.

14.

Bill Varney retired from Universal Studios in 2001 and moved to Fairhope, Alabama in 2003.

15.

Bill Varney died on April 2,2011, of congestive heart failure in Fairhope at the age of 77.

16.

Bill Varney was survived by his wife, Suzanne, and daughter, Lisa.