The Wilhelm Scream: One of the Most Used Sounds in Cinema

In the world of cinema, there is a very particular sound effect, used for decades in hundreds of films that range from fantasy and science fiction to pure horror, dramas, and comedies. It is a short, exaggerated, and well-defined scream. Quentin Tarantino, George Lucas, Peter Jackson, and James Cameron are some of the names that injected that sound into their movies, or at least allowed its presence. It is the Wilhelm Scream, and everything began with a western…

Let's travel to 1951, the year Distant Drums was released, starring the very Gary Cooper in the lead role. One of the first details to highlight about that film is that it qualifies as a Florida western, meaning its plot develops during the Second Seminole War, on the other side of the country. The second detail arises in the middle of the movie, when one of the characters is dragged and devoured by a group of alligators:

Yes, I am absolutely sure you recognize that scream. You have heard it in all kinds of movies and franchises: The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars, Spider-Man, Toy Story, Transformers, Indiana Jones, Pirates of the Caribbean… better stop there. The name of that effect is the Wilhelm Scream, but here we detect another curiosity: The character who dies in Distant Drums is not Wilhelm.

The Wilhelm Scream

Wilhelm is actually the Soldier Wilhelm, a character from The Charge at Feather River, a film from 1953. In it, poor Wilhelm receives an arrow in the leg while filling his pipe and riding a horse. The effect repeats a couple of occasions, for Indians and soldiers alike:

Of course, the practice of recycling sounds is very common. Back to Distant Drums, six screams were recorded for that film (the original session is in the video below). The fourth take is the one we all remember, and the other five were used in different scenes. The Wilhelm Scream became one more piece in the extensive Warner Bros. sound library, but its explosion in popularity is due to one man: Ben Burtt.

Burtt easily recognized the scream from one film to another, and when he decided to use it in his project The Scarlet Blade in 1974, he simply copied it from the soundtrack of another film. Three years later, Burtt was in charge of sound effects in Star Wars, and upon hearing the scream again, he didn't hesitate: A stormtrooper falling into the void was the first to 'adopt' it. Burtt was the one who gave the effect its definitive name, Wilhelm Scream.

Now, who did it? Who gave that scream in the first place? An investigation by Burtt led him to Sheb Wooley, best known for his song 'The Purple People Eater', and for his participation in another film with Gary Cooper, High Noon. Burtt located in Warner Bros. several records of the Distant Drums editor, including a list of actors designated to record additional dialogue lines and sound effects.

Wooley worked on Distant Drums as Soldier Jessup, and appears on the list assigned to 'screams of a man being bitten by an alligator'. Wooley's widow, Linda Dotson, seems to have confirmed this, but despite the popularity of the scream, Wooley never received a cent.

IMDb reports 690 projects in its database with the Wilhelm Scream.

Source: Damn Interesting