The Wilhelm Scream 1951 original recording used in several movies has been discovered
Shaun M Jooste 
Some of you may not realise it, but there’s an iconic scream in movies that may sound familiar to you. It’s called the Wilhelm Scream. It was initially recorded in 1951 for Distant Drums, where actor Sheb Wooley had to pretend an alligator had bitten him and dragged him into the water. Craig Smith, an audio engineer from USC’s School of Cinematic Arts, discovered it while uploading archived sounds to the internet.
Original Wilhelm Scream returns from the archives
The Wilhelm Scream was mostly used over the decades in movies and games. If you rewatch the original Star Wars trilogy with Luke Skywalker, you’ll hear how many times they placed the sound when someone was shot or knocked off a high platform. Here’s a video compilation we found online with the Scream through the SW movies.
It’s not just that the Wilhelm Scream was so popular; many movie producers and game directors used it as a joke sound since so many people were familiar with it. During the original recording, the director asked Sheb Wooley to practice various screams for the film. Funnily enough, the one that became popular was the fifth take, and it wasn’t even used in Distant Drums!
You can check the site where Craig Smith posted the original Wilhelm Scream on Freesound. We’ve also included it here for you to hear.
If you’re wondering in which games developers used the Wilhelm Scream, here’s a video montage we found online:
