Gregg Rudloff, Three-Time Oscar-Winning Sound Mixer, Dies at 63
The Hollywood Reporter
By Carolyn Giardina, Mike Barnes
January 9, 2019
Gregg Rudloff, the prolific Hollywood sound mixer who won Academy Awards for his work on Glory, The Matrix and Mad Max: Fury Road, has died. He was 63.
A resident of Sherman Oaks, Rudloff died Sunday at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coronor's office told The Hollywood Reporter. She said his death is being treated as a suicide, and the result of an autopsy is pending.
He most recently served on the experimental Orson Welles film The Other Side of the Wind (2018).
A rerecording mixer with more than 200 credits listed on IMDb, Rudloff also received Oscar noms for The Perfect Storm (2000), Argo (2012) and two films he made with director and frequent collaborator Clint Eastwood: Flags of Our Fathers (2006) and American Sniper (2014).
Rudloff and Eastwood also worked together on Honkytonk Man (1982) — the sound man's first credit — Absolute Power (1997), True Crime (1999), Letters From Iwo Jima (2006), Gran Torino (2008), Changeling (2008), Invictus (2009), Hereafter (2010), J. Edgar (2011), the Robert Lorenz-helmed Trouble With the Curve (2012) and Jersey Boys (2014).
Backstage at the 2016 Academy Awards after his victory on Mad Max: Fury Road (shared with Chris Jenkins and Ben Osmo), Rudloff talked about how pleased he was to have teamed with director George Miller.
"Working with George, not only him recognizing but embracing our passion for the use of sound in storytelling, that's what we live for, that's what gives us our fix," he said.
Director Rob Reiner hired him for This Is Spinal Tap (1984), The Sure Thing (1985), Stand by Me (1986) and The Princess Bride (1987).
Born in Los Angeles on Nov. 2, 1955, Rudloff also partnered on dozens of movies with fellow rerecording mixer John T. Reitz. They shared the Oscar (with David E. Campbell and David Lee) on The Matrix, collaborated on the sequels and did other notable films like Risky Business (1983), Footloose (1984), Bachelor Party (1984), Planes, Trains & Automobiles (1987), Fried Green Tomatoes (1991), White Men Can't Jump (1992), Honey I Blew Up the Kid (1992), Space Jam (1996), The Postman (1997), Pay It Forward (2000), Catwoman (2004), Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005) and Superman Returns (2006).
Rudloff also won an Emmy for the 1985 miniseries An Early Frost and a Golden Reel award from the Motion Picture Sound Editors for The Matrix.
In a profile on the Technicolor website, Rudloff said, "For me it's not so much about what I've done, it's about whom I've done it with." He considered glass sculptor Dale Chihuly "an artistic influence because of the way he collaborates with his team and fellow artists."
His father, Tex Rudloff, was nominated for a sound Oscar for The Buddy Holly Story (1978) and also did They Shoot Horses, Don't They? (1969), Taxi Driver (1996), Eastwood's The Outlaw Josey Wales (1976) and History of the World: Part I (1981).
RUDLOFF, Gregg
Born: 11/2/1955, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Died: 1/6/2019, Los Angeles, California, U.S.A.
Gregg Rudloff’s western – re-recording mixer:
Glory – 1989
The Postman – 1997
American Outlaws - 2001
Appaloosa – 2008