Leo Chaloukian, the multiple Emmy- and Oscar-winning sound designer, sound executive and former chair of the Television Academy, died July 18, the Academy announced Wednesday. He was 97.
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Active professionally into his 80s, Chaloukian began his sound career at Ryder Sound Service in 1954, becoming an award-winning re-recording mixer and eventually the sole owner in 1976. He sold the company to the Soundelux Entertainment Group in 1997 and became the company’s SVP.
In 2000, Liberty Media Group acquired Soundelux, which became Ascent Media Group, Creative Sound Services, and later a division of Discovery Communications known as CSS Studios LLC. Chaloukian continued as the company’s VP Business Development, representing its divisions for features and TV and retiring shortly after the company’s 2014 spinoff to become Todd Soundelux.
During his 60-year career in sound, Chaloukian and his staff at Ryder Sound won four national Emmys and two regional Emmys. He also was honored with the Syd Cassyd Founder’s Award in 2004 for his years of service to the Academy. During his early tenure at Ryder, the company worked on sound for National Geographic specials; David Wolper Productions documentaries; and such classic TV shows as Lassie, Death Valley Days, Sea Hunt, Maverick, Route 66, Gunsmoke and Jacques Cousteau specials. It also handled recording, re-recording and mixing for movies including Steve McQueen’s Bullitt and releases from American International Pictures. Chaloukian personally oversaw sound design for The Graduate and with his staff of audio engineers created the sound design for Easy Rider .
The company also contributed to the recording, rerecording and mixing for The Godfather, Chinatown, Saturday Night Fever , Love Story and the first Star Trek movies as well as work on Raiders of the Lost Ark, Tootsie and The Killing Fields . The company won the 1986 Emmy for Best Achievement in Sound for the TV movie Cross of Fire. The same year, Ryder won the Oscar for Best Achievement in Sound for Platoon .
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Chaloukian served on the Motion Picture Academy Board in the 1970s and, after terming out, began a long association with the Television Academy. He served multiple terms on its Board of Governors, representing the Sound Peer Group and lending expertise in other leadership positions. He spearheaded the Academy’s Building Committee from 1980-91, overseeing the planning, groundbreaking, construction and eventual move to the Academy’s current headquarters in North Hollywood. Chaloukian served four years as Television Academy president — a position now known as the chair — from 1989-93.
Chaloukian created Peer Group Executive Committees for the Academy and also was a long-standing director on the Television Academy’s Foundation Board and booster of the Foundation’s celebrated Internship Program, The Interviews.
Appointed to the California Film Commission in 1988, Chaloukian served under Govs. George Deukmejian and Pete Wilson.
Chaloukian is survived by daughter Kimme Chaloukian Black and son Dale Chaloukian — who followed in his father’s footsteps in sound editing — and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren. He was preceded in death by his wife Virginia in 2020.
Memorial services will be private. In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the Television Academy Foundation and its programs in Chaloukian’s memory.
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