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Summer 2026 – LOCAL695.COM 43 Oscar-nominated Production Sound Mixer Thomas Causey passed away on January 11 at the age of 76 John Carpenter's Halloween was an early highlight in Causey's four-decade career. He returned for Halloween II and Halloween III: Season of the Witch. Causey reunited with Carpenter on Escape from New York, The Thing, Christine, Starman, Big Trouble in Little China, Price of Darkness, Village of the Damned, and Escape from L.A. His other genre credits include Jurassic Park III, Clue, Twilight Zone: The Movie, Wes Craven's Chiller, and William Friedkin's The Guardian. Causey's work on Warren Beatty's Dick Tracy earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Sound Mixing. Some of his other notable credits include Anger Management, Erin Brockovich, The Naked Gun, Lethal Weapon 3, Hot Shots, The Fisher King, The General's Daughter, Murder by Numbers, The Rocketeer, and four Star Trek movies (Generations, First Contact, Insurrection, Nemesis). Sound Mixers don't get enough credit for their impact on film, but Causey's leaves behind a long legacy of beloved and successful work Richard Kite: I was new to Los Angeles in the '80s and when I first started out, I was in post working at Warner Bros., and ended up working with Richard Portman, who was an amazing person. I worked Tommy on the dark soundstage for The Fisher King with him for four years, and then I got tired of being in a room, I had to get out. That's where I started with Tommy Causey way back in 1989. At first, Tommy wanted to test me out, to see if I was okay. It was kind of crazy. Joe Brennan was his Boom Operator, so I ended up being the third. I just enjoyed working with Tommy all the time. He was such a good guy, I did thirty-five movies with him and it was fantastic. He was certainly a great mentor If he believed in you, you would always be on his good side. I loved working with Tommy and Joe giving them 110%. He always kept me working. Tommy was a treasure; I mean, he was one of the greats in the business and I learned a lot from him. He was just a great person, who always appreciated what you did for him. When someone would call Tommy if they had an issue doing something; asking how did you do this or how did you do that, he would give them all the details of how he mic'd something or how he got something done to making it sound better. On location, Tommy would find the oldest bookstore and buy the books that he loved. He would come back with boxes of books every time whether it was Boston or New York, wherever we'd go shooting. I remember a story when we were on Dick Tracy. Tommy said, "I've got to talk to Warren." No one ever approached Warren