Gregg Rudloff Dies: Three-Time Oscar-Winning Sound Mixer Was 63

Gregg Rudloff, a three-time Oscar-winning sound mixer and seven-time nominee whose career spanned more than 35 years, has died in Los Angeles. He was 63. The Los Angeles County Coroner’s office is treating his death as a possible suicide.

“It was reported to us possibly as a suicide,” a spokeswoman for the coroner’s office told Deadline. “His body was found at his residence in Sherman Oaks on January 6. A call was made, and during the call it was reported as a possible suicide. We won’t know for sure until the autopsy is completed.”

Rudloff, who was one of the film industry’s most prolific and honored soundmen, won Academy Awards for Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), The Matrix (1999) and Glory (1989). He also was Oscar-nominated four other times — for American Sniper, Argo, Flags of Our Fathers and The Perfect Storm — and won a 1986 Emmy for sound mixing An Early Frost.

A longtime collaborator with director Clint Eastwood, Rudloff’s first job was for Eastwood on Honkytonk Man (1982). They went on to work together on J. Edgar, Invictus, Changeling, Gran Torino, Letters From Iwo Jima, True Crime and Absolute Power, along with Flags of Our Fathers and American Sniper.

He was a second-generation re-recording mixer who started off by tagging along as a kid with his father, Oscar-nominated sound engineer Tex Rudloff (The Buddy Holly Story), and then followed him into the industry. An almost overnight success, in his first two years in the business, the younger Rudloff worked on such hit films as Risky Business, Footloose and This Is Spinal Tap. His other early work included Prizzi’s Honor, Stand by Me, The Princess Bride, Less Than Zero and Planes, Trains & Automobiles.

With more than 200 credits, his recent work includes The Girl on the Train, Fences, Molly’s Game, Captain Phillips and Best Picture Oscar winner Argo.

Social media is ablaze with praise and condolences. “From the moment Gregg came into my world, my understanding of humility, excellence and what it is to be a man and to stand for something changed forever,” wrote David White, whose work with Rudloff on Mad Max: Fury Road garnered him an Oscar for best sound editing. “I thank you my friend, and though I know you knew I felt that, oh God I wish I said it to you. Too late now.”

Cate Cahill, that film’s sound effects editor: “Just devastated. Such an excellent guy. Fully accepted me as a mixer in the industry without regard to gender. We talked mixing a lot; he was generous with information and his time.”

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