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Gregg Rudloff, Oscar-winning sound mixer of The Matrix and Mad Max: Fury Road, dies at 63
Three-time Oscar-winning sound mixer Gregg Rudloff has died at the age of 63, multiple reports confirm. Rudloff won Academy Awards for genre classics Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) and The Matrix (1999), as well as for the Civil War epic Glory (1989).
According to The Hollywood Reporter, a spokeswoman for the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner-Coronor's office confirmed the death, saying it is being treated as a possible suicide, and that autopsy results are currently pending.
In a statement to Australian website If.com.au, Mad Max director George Miller said: "Only those privileged to work closely with Gregg Rudloff would know the mastery and brilliance of his work. All who encountered him, however, got to know the brightness of his mind and the elegance of his soul."
The site reports that Australian sound designer David White, who also won the Best Sound Editing Oscar for Mad Max: Fury Road along with Mark A. Mangini, called Rudloff "an understated colossal giant of the film sound community."
Tributes also poured out on Twitter on Wednesday, with movie fans expressing their sadness at the news. Sound designer Jesse James Garcia tweeted: "Very upsetting news to hear about Gregg Rudloff. An amazing talent and person gone too soon."
Born in Los Angeles, Rudloff was a prolific sound mixer, with over 200 movie titles to his resume. He received Academy Award nominations for his work on The Perfect Storm (2000), Flags of Our Fathers (2006), Argo (2012), and American Sniper (2014). In 1986, he won an Emmy Award for sound mixing the drama An Early Frost (1985).
His first sound mixing job was for Clint Eastwood’s Honkytonk Man (1982). Rudloff would go on to collaborate with the legendary actor/director on numerous occasions, including Absolute Power (1996) and J. Edgar (2011).
Rudloff followed in the footsteps of his father Tex Rudloff, who was an Oscar nominee for The Buddy Holly Story (1978), among other titles.
His biography on Technicolor's website stated: "Gregg gets excited about anything that allows him to help bring the filmmaker’s vision to the screen, that helps the audience forget they’re in a theatre and become lost in the film. He says, 'For me it's not so much about what I’ve done, it’s about whom I’ve done it with.'"
