The legendary ‘Star Wars’ Sound Engineer, Richard Portman, has died at the age of 82. In a career that saw him nominated an incredible 11 times for Academy Awards (winning for ‘Deer Hunter’), for Star Wars fans he will always be remembered for his cutting edge work on the original Star Wars movie in 1977.
Variety detailed his career:
Portman worked on nearly 200 movies and mixed the sound for George Lucas’ “Star Wars.”
Portman received two Oscar sound nominations in 1973 for Francis Ford Coppola’s “The Godfather” and Michael Ritchie’s “The Candidate.” He was also double-nominated in 1974 for Peter Bogdanovich’s “Paper Moon” and Mike Nichols’ “The Day of the Dolphin.”
Portman received his first nom in 1971 for “Kotch,” directed by Jack Lemmon. He was also up for Oscars for Mel Brooks’ “Young Frankenstein,” Herbert Ross’ “Funny Lady,” Michael Apted’s “Coal Miner’s Daughter,” and Mark Rydell’s “On Golden Pond” and “The River.”
He collaborated on five films with Robert Altman — “California Split,” “Nashville,” “3 Women,” “A Wedding,” and “Quintet.” His other credits include “Little Big Man,” “Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory,” “Harold and Maude,” “The Last Detail,” “Splash,” “L.A. Story,” and “The Pelican Brief.”
Portman joined the faculty at Florida State University as a sound professor in 1995. One of his students was now-Oscar-nominated Barry Jenkins, the writer and director of “Moonlight.”
“Fantastic educator, introduced me to Murch’s ‘Blink of an Eye’ & taught me importance of sound, may he RIP,” Jenkins tweeted on Tuesday.
Portman was a native of Los Angeles, and the son of Clem Portman, whose credits include “King Kong” and “Citizen Kane.” He won an Oscar in 1969 for “Gaily, Gaily.”
His daughter, Jennifer posted the following tribute to Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/jennifer.portman.33/posts/1191855147600312
Everyone at Jedi News extends their condolences to his family and friends.
