The Resume

(January 18, 1933-September 12, 2013)
Born in Portland, Oregon
Electrical engineer
Received over 50 patents
Invented the Dolby noise reduction system and Dolby surround sound
Founded Dolby Laboratories (1965)
Inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame (2004)
Worth $2.4 billion (2012)

Why he might be annoying:

Dolby Labs, Dolby noise reduction, Dolby surround sound -- somebody seems to have a bit of an ego.
He has a son named Tom, but not the one you're thinking of.
His opinions on digital recording included 'It's the wrong way to do it' and 'Sanity will prevail and the digital systems will fade into disuse.'
We are sure those opinions had nothing to do with digital recording not requiring his noise reduction system.

Why he might not be annoying:

When he was in high school and college, he had a part time at Ampex where he helped develop the first video tape recorder.
Sound mixer Michael Minkler said, 'When we made 'Star Wars,' there's literally no way a movie of that magnitude was ever going to make it without Dolby noise reduction.'
A sound engineer noted, 'When you think of high quality sound, you think of Dolby.'
For his technical innovations, he received an Oscar (1989), a Grammy (1995) and two Emmys (1989,2005).

Credit: C. Fishel

Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

• C. Fishel's Profiles [Series 50]
• Celebrities Born on the Same Date [January] (Ranked: 1181933)
• Cracked.com's 16 Overlooked Deaths of 2013 (Ranked: 2)
• I Attended Cambridge
• I Attended San Jose State University
• I Attended Stanford
• I Died in 2013 (Ranked: 80)
• I Earned a Doctorate
• I Have a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame[C-E]
• I Have Dementia/Alzheimer's
• I Have Leukemia
• I Survived an Air Crash
• I'm a Billionaire
• Inventors
• Look at Me, I'm Accepting My Award
• Look at Me, I'm Accepting My Emmy
• Members of the Television Hall of Fame (Ranked: 23)
• My Name, My Company
• Obama for America [2008]
• Profiles 34751-35000 (Ranked: 34828)

Year In Review:

For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 5 Votes: 0% Annoying
In 2023, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
In 2022, Out of 19 Votes: 26.32% Annoying
In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying
In 2020, Out of 6 Votes: 16.67% Annoying
In 2019, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2018, Out of 16 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
In 2017, Out of 3 Votes: 66.67% Annoying
In 2016, Out of 6 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2015, Out of 10 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2014, Out of 20 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
In 2013, Out of 273 Votes: 68.50% Annoying