Born in Jamesville, NY. One of the top sound designers and sound effects editors in American film. Back in 1976, Ben Burtt coined the title "Sound Designer" with his award-winning work on STAR WARS. Before that watershed, no one had pushed the creation and development of sound to the extremes explored by Burtt. His work gave birth to a whole aural universe, complete with characters expressing themselves almost exclusively through sound effects -- and that earned Burtt a Special Achievement Award at the Oscars ceremony of 1978. He then refined his art through several major projects, including THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, RETURN OF THE JEDI, and all three INIDANA JONES movies. Burtt left Lucasfilm in 1990 to pursue other interests as a freelancer: writing, directing, editing. Although he always kept in touch with his former colleagues -- doing work on "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles," for instance -- he never really came back to Luke Skywalker's universe until Producer Rick McCallum asked him to sit in the Sound Designer's chair again for the STAR WARS TRILOGY SPECIAL EDITION. "I was the only one who could remember where most of the stuff was, where the tapes were, what we had done," he says with a smile. "It was exciting to go back and get in touch with the picture again, the old friends who were there. R2-D2, and the lightsabers." Following the Special Edition project, McCallum made Burtt "an offer he couldn't refuse" and so Burtt stayed on board for Episode I. He also supervised the sound editing for STAR WARS: EPISODE II - ATTACK OF THE CLONES (2002) and EPISODE III - REVENGE OF THE SITH (2005), and he designed and created sound effects for all the "Star Wars" video games. Burtt was sound designer and supervising sound editor for Steven Spielberg's MUNICH (also 2005).  Special Achievement Award 1977: For the creation of the alien, creature and robot voices featured in STAR WARS  Special Achievement Award 1981: Sound Effects Editing RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK (w. Richard L. Anderson)  Sound Effects Editing 1982: E.T. -- THE EXTRA-TERRESTRIAL (w. Charles L. Campbell)  Nominated for Sound 1983: RETURN OF THE JEDI (w. Gary Summers, Randy Thom & Tony Dawe)  Nominated for Sound Effects Editing 1983: RETURN OF THE JEDI  Nominated for Achievement in Sound Effects Editing 1988: WILLOW (w. Richard Hymns)  Nominated for Achievement in Sound 1989: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (w. Gary Summers, Shawn Murphy & Tony Dawe)  Best Achievement in Sound Effects Editing 1989: INDIANA JONES AND THE LAST CRUSADE (w. Richard Hymns)  Nominated for Documentary (Short Subject) 1996: SPECIAL EFFECTS - Producer (w. Susanne Simpson)  Nominated for Achievement in Sound Effects Editing 1999: STAR WARS EPISODE I: THE PHANTOM MENACE (w. Tom Bellfort) 7 nominations, 2 Awards, 2 Special Achievement Awards