Ben Burtt Interview: The Sound of Darth Vader
In this featurette from the Lucasfilm video archives, sound designer Ben Burtt discusses the evolution of Darth Vader's iconic, ominous breathing.
In the original script, Darth Vader was described as a "strange dark being, in some kind of a life-support system." As a result, Burtt originally created many sounds for Vader: his heart audibly beating, gears turning as he moved, and more. This turned out to be too much, however, and was scaled back to just his mechanical lungs -- which became a classic movie sound effect, and remains a defining feature of the Dark Lord of the Sith.