Thomas Causey Courtesy of the Causey Family Share on Facebook Share on X Google Preferred Share to Flipboard Show additional share options Share on LinkedIn Share on Pinterest Share on Reddit Share on Tumblr Share on Whats App Send an Email Print the Article Post a Comment Thomas Causey, the veteran sound mixer who received an Oscar nomination for Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy and worked on 11 films for John Carpenter and eight starring Adam Sandler, has died. He was 76. Causey died Sunday in Cathedral City, California, after a long illness, his daughter-in-law, Crystal Causey, told The Hollywood Reporter. During a rather impressive four decades in Hollywood, Causey contributed to Francis Ford Coppola's Gardens of Stone (1987), James L. Brooks' Broadcast News (1987), Albert Brooks' Defending Your Life (1991), Joe Johnston's The Rocketeer (1991), Terry Gilliam's The Fisher King (1991), Richard Donner's Lethal Weapon 3 (1992), Beatty's Bulworth (1998) and Steven Soderbergh's Erin Brockovich (2000). Related Stories Business Colleen Barstow, Theater Owner and Independent Cinema Advocate, Dies at 64 Music Guy Moon, 'The Fairly OddParents' and 'Danny Phantom' Composer, Dies at 63 The New Orleans native also mixed the Star Trek films Generations (1994), First Contact (1996), Insurrection (1998) and Nemesis (2002) and collaborated with Jim Abrahams on Ruthless People (1986), The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988), Big Business (1988) and the two Hot Shots! films from 1991 and '93. He shared his Oscar nom for Dick Tracy (1990) with Chris Jenkins, David E. Campbell and Doug Hemphill, members of the first team to introduce digital sound recording technology to a feature. And he received an Emmy nomination for mixing the 1981 NBC telefilm Fire on the Mountain. Born in New Orleans on Dec. 5, 1949, and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, Thomas Dewitt Causey Jr. graduated from C.E. Byrd High School in 1967 and fell in love with the movies while taking film classes at the University of New Orleans. Watching every French feature that came through town at the Gentilly Theatre spurred him to attend a course in Paris focused on directors of the French New Wave, and he got to meet Claude Chabrol, Agnès Varda and François Truffaut. Hired as a driver for a sound crew in New Orleans working on the Barry Newman-starring British film Fear Is the Key (1972), he broke his arm and couldn't drive, but the sound team kept him on so he could tell stories about the Crescent City and pick a great restaurant for dinner. By the end of the shoot, he had fallen head over heels for filmmaking. With a $5,000 loan from his father, Causey purchased a Nagra recorder, a couple of Sennheiser microphones and some cables and worked on movies that came to New Orleans and on live albums for local jazz musicians. In 1977 when he was 28, he moved to Los Angeles and began working immediately as a location mixer for films and TV shows. He started out with Carpenter on Halloween (1978) and continued with the filmmaker on Halloween II (1981), Escape From New York (1981), Halloween III: Season of the Witch (1982), The Thing (1982), Christine (1983), Starman (1984), Big Trouble in Little China (1986), Prince of Darkness (1987), Village of the Damned (1995) and Escape From L.A. (1996). Meanwhile, he must have had fun on the Sandler movies Anger Management (2003), The Longest Yard (2005), Brooks' Spanglish (2004), Click (2006), Reign Over Me (2007), I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry (2007), You Don't Mess With the Zohan (2008) and Bedtime Stories (2008). His résumé included Jonathan Lynn's Clue (1985), Martin Ritts' Nuts (1987), Danny DeVito's Hoffa (1992), Luis Mandoki's When a Man Loves a Woman (1994), Sean Penn's The Crossing Guard (1995) and Johnston's Jurassic Park III (2001). For much of his career, he worked with Joe Brennan, his dear friend and boom operator. Causey also was a dog lover, an avid golfer and a collector of rare books and known for being a great host and storyteller who often said, "Don't let the truth get in the way of a good story!" In addition to his daughter-in law, survivors include his third wife, Christina, whom he married in June 2022; son Jesse; granddaughter Coraline; brother Matthew; sister-in-law D.G.; nephews Tennessee and Walker; and stepsons Kyle, Tyler and Paul. He also was married to Maggie Reavis Causey from 1973-93 and to Katherine Sullivan from 1997-2022. THR Newsletters Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day Subscribe Sign Up Train Dreams Clint Bentley on Making 'Train Dreams,' Selling His Movie to Netflix and What's Next Teyana Taylor Sarah Paulson, Glenn Close, 'All's Fair' Cast Told Teyana Taylor to "Get Ready" for Awards Season Ahead of Golden Globe Win, Oscar Buzz Heat Vision Alfie Williams on '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple,' Learning From Ralph Fiennes - and Teen Stardom: "I've Gotta Remember Where I Come From" Ralph Fiennes '28 Years Later: The Bone Temple' Review: Ralph Fiennes and Jack O