The film industry is saddened by the passing of Rob Young, a highly professional sound mixer and visionary. Young’s work was widely recognised for its excellence and significantly impacted the industry. Young died June 11 in Albi, France, of complications from a fall in Morocco while on a food tour, his wife, Yvonne Young, announced.
Throughout his long career, he received critical acclaim, industry awards, and even an Oscar nomination. His death at 76 has left many filmmakers and sound enthusiasts feeling a profound loss. We honour Rob Young’s life and legacy and celebrate his extraordinary contributions to the world of cinema.
Young received nominations for several prestigious awards for his work in various films. These include BAFTA nominations for Unforgiven (1992) and Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet (1996), a Cinema Audio Society prize for Joe Johnston’s Jumanji (1995), a Genie Award for Phillip Borsos’ The Grey Fox (1983), and a Golden Reel Award for Bryan Singer’s X2 (2003).
Young’s accomplished career includes noteworthy films such as The Accused (1988), Leaving Normal (1992), This Boy’s Life (1993), Double Jeopardy (1999), Reindeer Games (2000), Mission to Mars (2000), The Pledge (2001), She’s the Man (2006), Shooter (2007), and Percy Jackson & the Olympians: The Lightning Thief (2010), which was his last project.
The Sound Man, a one-act play that premiered in New York in 1999, featured a man who primarily worked in Vancouver. After retiring and moving to a village in the south of France,
According to his wife, he enjoyed various activities such as reading, listening to music, writing a novel and screenplay, cooking, hiking, fishing, and travelling to new and exciting destinations.
Young, the oldest of three kids, grew up in Sussex, New Brunswick. He graduated from technical school in St. John, New Brunswick and worked for CN Railways. Later, he enrolled at Ryerson University in Toronto to study Radio & Television Arts.
At Ryerson, he worked part-time at Spence-Thomas Productions and travelled extensively for the CTV investigative news show W5. He eventually moved to Vancouver. In the early 1970s, Young started working on documentaries before transitioning to feature and TV sound.
He even worked as a boom operator on U.S. features. Some of his early works include Robert Altman’s Buffalo Bill and the Indians, Sitting Bull’s History Lesson (1976) and Michael Crichton’s Runaway (1984).
Young collaborated with director George Schaefer on various telefilms in Canada. Together with his wife, whom he met at Ryerson and married just two days before their 53rd anniversary, He is survived by his children Brendan, Michael, and Gillian, as well as his sister Kathy, daughters-in-law Jane and Mackenzie, son-in-law Derek, and grandsons Isaac, Sebastian, and Wilder.
