Ray Dolby, the late San Francisco audio technology pioneer who revolutionised movie soundtracks, will be honoured next week with a star on the famed Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Director Francis Ford Coppola and Dolby’s widow, Dagmar Dolby, will help dedicate the star during a 22 January ceremony in front of the famed Dolby Theater, site of the annual Academy Awards.
Dolby, who was 80 when he died in September 2013, is one of the few non-entertainers, directors or studio executives honored with one of the Walk’s 2,540 stars.
But Dolby joins some select company, including motion picture camera inventor Thomas Alva Edison, film manufacturer George Eastman, Technicolor inventor Herbert Kalmus and Lee De Forest, who invented the Audion vacuum tube that made radio broadcasting possible.
“Everyone in the world has experienced the most amazing audio emanating from film screens around the world,” Hollywood Chamber of Commerce president and CEO Leron Gubler said in a statement. “Ray Dolby is part of our cinematic history and we are proud to add his star to the Hollywood Walk of Fame.”
Dolby founded Dolby Laboratories, which produces audio and video technologies used in a wide swath of the entertainment industry, from recording studio production to home theater systems. During his lifetime, Ray Dolby won Oscars, Emmys and Grammys for his work.
The star dedication ceremony will be streamed live on WalkOfFame.com.
