Steve Maslow, the top-notch re-recording mixer whose seven Oscar nominations for best sound included wins for The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark and Speed, has died. He was 81.
Maslow died Monday at a therapy facility in West Hills after a battle with cancer, his wife, Ronna Maslow, told The Hollywood Reporter.
The Los Angeles native also landed Oscar noms for his work on Dune (1984), Waterworld (1995), Twister (1996) and U-571 (2000).
Maslow did 200-plus features during his career, teaming with fellow mixer Gregg Landaker on more than 130 of them, starting with Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979). He specialized in dialogue and music while Landaker focused on sound effects, and he shared all his Oscar noms with him with the exception of Dune.
“Maz” also collaborated with John Carpenter on Escape From New York (1981), Halloween II (1981), The Thing (1982), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), Christine (1983), Starman (1984) and Escape From L.A. (1996) and with Tim Burton on Beetlejuice (1988), Edward Scissorhands (1990) and Batman Returns (1992).
From left: Bill Varney, Steve Maslow and Gregg Landaker at the 1982 Academy Awards after their win for ‘Raiders of the Lost Ark.’
ABC Photo Archives/Disney General Entertainment Content/Getty Images
Maslow was born on Oct. 17, 1944. His father worked for Mattel toys and his mother was a legal secretary. After graduating from Grant High School, he hooked up as a roadie in 1969 with the Strawberry Alarm Clock, setting up the sound for the psychedelic rock band that had a big hit with “Incense and Peppermint.”
“That opened up the whole music industry for me,” he said in 2017, and as a recording engineer, he served as a mixer on songs including “Oh What a Night (December 1963)” from Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons and “Boogie Oogie Oogie” from A Taste of Honey.
With the rise of garage bands and the music industry relying less on studios, Maslow looked around for an opportunity to become a film mixer.
He segued into the movie business and worked on four films released in 1978, including the documentary The Last Waltz, and other music films followed, including Hair (1979), The Kids Are Alright (1979), Rust Never Sleeps (1979) and Stop Making Sense (1984).
Before he knew it, Maslow was working with producer George Lucas on More American Graffiti (1979), The Empire Strikes Back (1980) and Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981) and picking up Oscars in consecutive years.
Maslow’s impressive film résumé also included The Wanderers (1979), 10 (1979), Ordinary People (1980), The Postman Always Rings Twice (1981), Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid (1982), My Favorite Year (1982), The Dead Zone (1983), St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), Teen Wolf (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Children of a Lesser God (1986), Angel Heart (1987), Broadcast News (1987), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), Pet Sematary (1989), Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls (1995), Patch Adams (1998), Bruce Almighty (2003), The 40-Year-Old Virgin (2005), X-Men: The Last Stand (2006), Rocky Balboa (2006), The Town (2010), The Great Gatsby (2013), The Conjuring (2013), Non-Stop (2014) and Mad Max: Fury Road (2015). There are too many movies to mention.
In addition to his wife, survivors include his son, Travis, and a granddaughter.
“We lost one of the best of the best, and so many who loved him are heartbroken today,” 17-time Oscar-nominated sound mixer Greg P. Russell wrote on Instagram. “We’ll miss you buddy, and thanks for all the memories. Anytime he ever walked onto a stage I was mixing on, he’d walk over to me and lean on my shoulder and say, ‘You’re not gonna leave it like that, are ya????’ Loved to laugh with him.”
