Gary Rydstrom facts for kids

Gary Rydstrom (born June 29, 1959) is an American sound designer and film director. He is famous for creating amazing sounds for many popular movies. He has won seven Academy Awards (also known as the Oscars) for his sound work, and has been nominated twenty times!

About Gary Rydstrom

Gary Rydstrom was born in Chicago, USA. He studied film at the University of Southern California. In 1983, he started working at Skywalker Sound. This is a famous company that creates sounds for movies. There, he learned from Ben Burtt, who designed sounds for Star Wars.

Gary Rydstrom quickly became known for his incredible talent. He worked as a sound technician on Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. Then, he became a sound designer for movies like Spaceballs.

Creating Sounds for Movies

One of his big projects was Backdraft. He created all the fire sounds from scratch! These sounds were so good that they were used in many other films. You might have heard them in The Lord of the Rings movies and Shrek.

Gary Rydstrom won his first Academy Awards for Terminator 2: Judgment Day. He invented new ways to make realistic sound effects for this film. He also helped improve the sound for the original Terminator movie.

For Jurassic Park, Gary and his team had to create dinosaur sounds. They mixed together sounds from many different animals. This made the audience feel like huge, roaring dinosaurs were all around them! Jurassic Park was also the first movie to use a special sound system called DTS. The famous T-Rex roar he created was later used for characters in A Bug's Life, Avatar, and Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief.

He continued to work on many other famous movies. These include Titanic, Saving Private Ryan, Minority Report, and Finding Nemo. Gary Rydstrom often shares his knowledge with young sound artists.

Directing Films

Gary Rydstrom has also directed movies. His first directing job was for the Pixar short film Lifted in 2006. This short film was nominated for an Academy Award.

He also directed another Pixar short called Hawaiian Vacation. Later, he directed the Lucasfilm animated movie Strange Magic.

Besides directing his own films, Gary Rydstrom has helped with the English versions of Japanese animated movies. He directed the English voice actors for films from Studio Ghibli. These include Tales From Earthsea, Arrietty, From Up on Poppy Hill, and The Wind Rises.

Awards and Achievements

Gary Rydstrom has won many important awards for his sound work. He has won 7 Academy Awards (Oscars) and has been nominated 20 times! He has also won 5 Golden Reel Awards, 2 C.A.S Awards, 2 BAFTA Awards, and 1 Grammy Award.

Some of the movies he won Academy Awards for include:

• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1992) - Won for Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound.
• Jurassic Park (1994) - Won for Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound.
• Titanic (1998) - Won for Best Sound.
• Saving Private Ryan (1999) - Won for Best Sound Effects Editing and Best Sound.

He also won a Grammy Award in 2023 for his work on Bates: Philharmonia Fantastique - The Making of the Orchestra.

Selected Filmography

Here are some of the movies Gary Rydstrom has worked on:

• Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom (1984) - audio technician
• Spaceballs (1987) - sound designer
• Backdraft (1991) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Jurassic Park (1993) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Toy Story (1995) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Mission: Impossible (1996) - re-recording mixer
• Titanic (1997) - re-recording mixer
• Saving Private Ryan (1998) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• A Bug's Life (1998) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace (1999) - re-recording mixer
• Monsters, Inc. (2001) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Minority Report (2002) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Finding Nemo (2003) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Lifted (2006) - director, writer, sound
• Hawaiian Vacation (2011) - director, screenplay
• War Horse (2011) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Lincoln (2012) - re-recording mixer
• Strange Magic (2015) - director, screenplay
• Bridge of Spies (2015) - re-recording mixer
• Star Wars: The Force Awakens (2015) - re-recording mixer
• Ready Player One (2018) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• Ad Astra (2019) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• West Side Story (2021) - sound designer, re-recording mixer
• The Fabelmans (2022) - sound designer, re-recording mixer

See also

In Spanish: Gary Rydstrom para niños