The History of the Wilhelm Scream
The Wilhelm Scream is one of the most frequently used sound effect in film, television, and even some video games. The Wilhelm Scream is held in the Warner Brothers stock sound library. The Wilhelm Scream has become a cliche in the sound industry after being used in Star Wars and other major franchises, composing a nice portfolio of about 216 films and some video games. If for some reason you have no idea what the Wilhelm Scream sounds like, there is an example below:
The Wilhelm scream is normally used when someone dies from an explosion, falls from a great height, or being penetrated by an arrow. The Wilhelm Scream’s first appearance was in the film “Distant Drums” (1951) when a group of soldiers were wading across a swamp and one of the soldiers is bitten and dragged under water by an alligator. The original recording artist of the Wilhelm Scream was a mystery for a long time, until a well known sound producer, Benjamin Burtt Jr., discover records at Warner Brothers that contained a list from the editor of all of the actors who were hired to produce the scream. After much research, Burtt discovered that the original artist of the Wilhelm Scream is actor and singer Sheb Wooley, Wooley played an uncredited role as Private Jessup in “Distant Drums” and was the soldier who was eaten by the alligator.
The Wilhelm Scream, however, was not given a name until its second appearance in the film “The Charge at Feather River”. The Wilhelm Scream was named after one of the characters, Private Wilhelm, who was shot in the back with an arrow in “The Charge at Feather River”, in the scene where the effect was used. The Wilhelm Scream was also used a second time in “The Charge at Feather River” during a death scene of about two to for Indians during a raid. Other films that the Wilhelm Scream is used include: All four Indiana Jones movies, Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, as well as many other George Lucas and Steven Spielberg films. Here is an example of the Wilhelm Scream in Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi:
Within the past decade the Wilhelm Scream has been used in a number of video games, many of these being apart of the Star Wars franchise. These include Star Wars: Dark Forces, LEGO Star Wars, and LEGO Star Wars: The Complete Saga. In both LEGO Star Wars games, the Wilhelm Scream is used when the player loses all of their hearts on the Battle for Coruscant. The most recent video game to have the Wilhelm Scream used in it is Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption, when the player (John Marston) is rafting down the Rio Grande with Irish in a desperate attempt to enter Mexico. The Wilhelm Scream is probably the most frequently used sound effect in sound industry, so be sure that we will probably see it in a number of more films for many years to come.
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