The Wilhelm Scream may be the only movie sound effect with its own cult following. Recorded in 1951, the scream—actually six screams recorded in a single session, although numbers 4 through 6 are the most recognizable—was originally recorded for use in a Gary Cooper Western, Distant Drums (1951); no record exists of whose voice the scream belongs to, but clues suggest it may have been Sheb Wooley, the singer behind the novelty hit "Purple People Eater." After Distant Drums, the effect entered the Warner Brothers sound library, appearing in occasional WB productions over the years.
Its status as a classic and a sound effects staple, however, didn't begin to take shape until sound editor Ben Burtt unearthed the tape for use in Star Wars (1977), for the scene when a stormtrooper, just shot by Luke, tumbles into the chasm they are about to swing across. Burtt was also the one who first named the sound "the Wilhelm scream," after the character in Charge at Feather River (1953)
