Kirk Francis

Kirk Francis
Born	August 27, 1947 Oakland, California, United States
Occupation	Sound engineer
Years active	1972 – 2014

Kirk H. Francis (born August 27, 1947) was a production sound mixer in the motion picture industry from 1968 through 2014. He mixed production sound for over 60 films, including 12 Years a Slave, Bull Durham, Under Fire, Wonder Boys, Mr. Holland’s Opus, Sleepless in Seattle, Tin Cup, and I Dismember Mama.

Francis was given the 2008 Academy Award for Best Sound for The Bourne Ultimatum,^[1] and won two BAFTA awards, for The Bourne Ultimatum in 2008^[2] and LA Confidential in 1998 . For LA Confidential he also received an Academy Award nomination in 1998.^[3] He received three Cinema Audio Society Award nominations for his work on LA Confidential, The Bourne Supremacy, and The Bourne Ultimatum.

Personal life

In lieu of college, Francis hitch-hiked in 1967 to Goa, India, where he ran a small export business. Upon his return to the US in 1968, he began his career in sound. He is an environmental activist who helped spearhead the saving of the Putney Woods on Whidbey Island, Washington from certain clear cutting and development. His wife Leslie Larch was once a can-can dancer at the Moulin Rouge in Paris, France. In 2014, after having spent almost 46 years of his life standing in one spot for 14-16 hours every day while wearing headphones and listening to the far from mellifluous sounds of what amounts to nothing more than an industrial work site, Francis retired from the "movie biz" to better tend his coffee plants. He does not accept work calls. He and Leslie live on the Big Island of Hawai'i.

References

1. "The 80th Academy Awards (2008) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-22.
2. http://www.bafta.org/awards/film/sound-in-2008,353,BA.html
3. "The 70th Academy Awards (1998) Nominees and Winners". oscars.org. Retrieved 2011-11-19.

External links

• Kirk Francis at the Internet Movie Database