Aargh!!

I bet most of you know that "The Scream" is the title of a painting (four of them actually) by Edvard Munch, but have you ever heard of The Wilhelm Scream?  I hadn't until recently.  It appears to have its origin in a 1951 film called "Distant Drums" where an actor playing a US cavalryman is shot by an Indian arrow and lets out a short sharp scream.  His character was called Private Wilhelm - hence the name.  It seems likely that it was not in fact the actor who screamed but a "voice extra" by the name of Sheb Wooley. Nothing particularly remarkable about the scream except that for whatever reason it has become a "stock" piece of audio which has been used since in over 200 films including many well-known ones such as the Star Wars films, the Indiana Jones trilogy, the Lord of the Rings movies and so on.  So the next time somebody gets shot or falls off a high building or gets munched by an alien monster, listen out for the Wilhelm scream.