Douglas E. Turner, ‘Deliverance’ and ‘Elephant Man’ Sound Man, Dies at 93

Douglas E. Turner, the British rerecording mixer who worked with John Boorman on Deliverance and four other films and with David Lynch on The Elephant Man, has died. He was 93.

Turner died May 5 at his home in Agua Dulce, California, his wife of 37 years, retired sound editor Justine Turner (Dances With Wolves, Field of Dreams), told The Hollywood Reporter.

His rerecording career spanned 36 years, which included 19 at De Lane Lea Studios in London.

Turner worked on Fox’s The X-Files for two seasons (1995-97) and received an Emmy in 1996 for mixing “Nisei,” a third-season episode. He also was nominated in 1989 for the NBC telefilm The Hijacking of the Achille Lauro and in 1990 for the CBS telefilm Caroline?

Plus, he mixed an Oscar-winning short film, an animated version of Hemingway’s The Old Man and the Sea that was released in 1999.

After the Oscar best picture nominee Deliverance (1972), Turner and Boorman reunited for Zardoz (1974), Excalibur (1981), The Emerald Forest (1985) and The General (1998).

Turner also mixed The Gambler (197) for Karel Reisz, The Return of the Pink Panther (1975) and The Revenge of the Pink Panther (1978) for Blake Edwards, Side by Side (1975) and Puberty Blues (1981) for Bruce Beresford and The Omen (1976) for Richard Donner.

His résumé included Peter Medak’s A Day in the Death of Joe Egg (1972), David Hemmings’ Running Scared (1972), Ken Russell’s Savage Messiah (1972), Theater of Blood (1973), Gene Wilder’s The Adventure of Sherlock Holmes’ Smarter Brother (1975), Delbert Mann’s All Quiet on the Western Front (1979), James Ivory’s The Europeans (1979), Neil Jordan’s Angel (1982), Michael Mann’s The Keep (1983), John Frankenheimer’s The Fourth War (1990), Lionheart (1990) and Franco Zeffirelli’s Otello (1986).

He also worked on the eighth season (1993-94) of NBC’s L.A. Law.

In addition to his wife — they first met at Cannon Films in 1987 after he arrived from the U.K. to design a mixing stage, became engaged in a month and married within three months — survivors include daughters Sierra Rose and Glynnis, sons Malcolm and Steve and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.