Donald C. Rogers Dies: Oscar-Winning ‘Rocky’, ‘Little Shop of Horrors’ & ‘The Goonies’ Sound Director Was 94

Donald C. Rogers, who worked sound on films like Rocky (1976), The Goonies (1985) and Little Shop of Horrors (1986), has died. He was 94.

The Academy Award winner died on Sunday, Jan. 4 in Salem, Oregon, where he lived with his wife Lizabeth, according to an online obituary and the local Statesman Journal newspaper.

Born May 4, 1931, Rogers grew up in Southern California and briefly attended UC Santa Barbara, before joining the Navy and flying in the Korean War.

Rogers got his start in Hollywood, working in the sound department for There’s No Business Like Show Business (1954), starring Marilyn Monroe. He went on to work with Monroe on The Seven Year Itch (1955), Some Like It Hot (1959) and The Misfits (1961).

“She became a very close friend,” Rogers told the Statesman Journal.

Over the decades, Rogers worked as director of sound and various other sound positions on South Pacific (1958), Hello, Dolly! (1969), Hair (1979), Star Trek: The Motion Picture (1979), Airplane! (1980), Xanadu (1980), The Cannonball Run (1981), Grease 2 (1982), Star Wars: Episode VI – Return of the Jedi (1983), Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983), Staying Alive (1983), The Big Chill (1983), Sixteen Candles (1984), Gremlins (1984), Purple Rain (1984), Dune (1984), St. Elmo’s Fire (1985), Ferris Bueller’s Day Off (1986), Predator (1987), Beetlejuice (1988), Big (1988), Batman (1989), Steel Magnolias (1989), Field of Dreams (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Bodyguard (1992), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Se7en (1995).

He was also second assistant camera operator on The Sound of Music (1965), later reuniting with Julie Andrews as a second unit photographer on Star! (1968).

Rogers retired from Hollywood in 1996 as senior vice president of post-production at Warner Bros., the same year he received the Gordon E. Sawyer Award at the Oscars, recognizing his technological contributions to the industry.