Longtime collaborator alongside John Williams as sound editor on the Star Wars soundtrack, Kenneth Wannberg, who worked on more than 50 films with the master, died at the age of 91.
His name remained in the shadow of the legendary John Williams, his work was nonetheless essential. Because without him, despite the mastery of the composer’s scores, the soundtracks of the Star Wars saga films would not have had the same flavor. Kenneth Wannberg, sound editor and longtime contributor to Williams, has died at his home at the age of 91.
When we talk about a very long-term collaboration with John Williams, it’s not a vain formula, since they have worked together on around fifty soundtracks for films. Wannberg was credited with the sound editing of the films of the Star Wars saga, therefore, but also all the Indiana Jones, and other famous soundtracks by Williams, such as the powerful and heartbreaking soundtrack of Schindler’s List, Jurassic Park, Meeting of the third type, Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone… their last collaboration was on the film Munich by Spielberg.
In a career spanning over fifty years, Kenneth Wannberg has also worked with other equally illustrious names. Bernard Herrmann, for example, on the film Journey to the Center of the Earth; Jerry Goldsmith, George Delerue, Alex North (on Prizzi Honor)…
Prolific, he was credited with less than 125 works, including many masterpieces of the 7th Art, but never received an Oscar; not even a single quote. The only reward he got was a Primetime Emmy Award in 1986, for his work on an episode of the series Fantasy Stories. In this case an episode directed by Steven Spielberg, and whose music was precisely signed by John Williams.
In any case, George Lucas and Spielberg were able to recognize the very great merits of Kenneth Wannberg and the importance of his work, by agreeing to finance, in October 2002, a university chair at the Southern California Universityon the art of musical editing, which bears his name ever since.