Elmo Williams
ACE Career Achievement 1990
James Elmo Williams (April 30, 1913 – November 25, 2015) was an American film and television editor, producer, director and executive.[1] His work on the film High Noon (1952) received the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.[2] In 2006, Williams published Elmo Williams: A Hollywood Memoir.[3]
Career
Among the films that Williams edited are High Noon (1952), 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (1954) and The Vikings (1958). Williams was involved in the production of The Longest Day (1962) and Cleopatra (1963),[4] and he was a producer of the film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970). Between 1971 and 1974, Williams was the Head of Production for 20th Century Fox.
Williams edited the film Design for Death (1947), which won an Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. Williams won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on 1952's High Noon (directed by Fred Zinnemann and co-edited with Harry W. Gerstad, although he was subordinate to Gerstad), and was nominated again for 1954's 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (directed by Richard Fleischer).
High Noon was listed as the 54th best-edited film of all time in a 2012 survey of members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild,[5] and the editing of High Noon is probably Williams' most studied accomplishment. Critic James Berardinelli wrote, "High Noon's tension comes through Kane's desperation, aided in no small part by Elmo Williams' brilliant editing as the clock ticks down to twelve. For a motion picture with so little action, the suspense builds to almost unbearable levels."[6] In his memoir, Williams states that this well-known montage was specifically edited to match the music composed for the scene by Dimitri Tiomkin.
Williams was credited as associate producer and coordinator of battle episodes on The Longest Day (1962). He was also an uncredited second unit director. He later produced another historical World War II film Tora! Tora! Tora! (1970), also for Darryl F. Zanuck.
Williams was elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors (ACE).[7] In 1971, Williams was honored with the ACE "Golden Eddie" award as Filmmaker of the Year. In 1990, Williams received the ACE Career Achievement Award; he was among the first six editors to be honored as such.
On May 14, 2011, Williams featured in Slow Children's music video “Learn to Love”.
Personal life
Williams was born in Lone Wolf, Oklahoma. In 1940, he married Lorraine Williams, who died in 2004. They adopted two daughters and a son.[8] The couple retired to Brookings, Oregon, on the Oregon Coast in 1983.[8] In December 2008, Williams donated a public chapel to the city in memory of his wife.[8] The chapel, named Capella By The Sea, is located in Azalea Park in Brookings.
Lorraine wrote the lyrics to the theme song for the movie Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines (1965); British composer Ron Goodwin set them to music and conducted.
He turned 100 in April 2013.[9]
Elmo Williams died at his home in Brookings on November 25, 2015, at the age of 102.[1]
Elmo's brother Burch Williams was killed in an accident when a biplane crashed into the helicopter Burch was in during the filming of aerial sequences for the 1971 film Zeppelin.
References
- ^ a b Graves, Scott (November 25, 2015). "Brookings' Elmo Williams dies at age 102". Curry Coastal Pilot. Archived from the original on December 16, 2015. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
- ^ Williams, Elmo (2008). "Elmo Williams Bio One". Archived from the original on 2009-04-09.
- ^ Williams, Elmo (2006). Elmo Williams: A Hollywood Memoir. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2621-7.
- ^ Williams, Elmo (2008). "Films by Elmo Williams". Archived from the original on 2008-03-13.
- ^ "The 75 Best Edited Films". Editors Guild Magazine. 1 (3). May 2012. Archived from the original on 2015-03-17.
- ^ Berardinelli, James (2003). "High Noon". ReelViews: The Ultimate Guide to the Best 1,000 Modern Movies on DVD and Video. Justin, Charles, & Co. p. 567.
- ^ "American Cinema Editors > Members". Archived from the original on 2008-02-18.
- ^ a b c Tobias, Lori (December 11, 2008). "Film producer gives Brookings a chapel in wife's memory". The Oregonian. Retrieved 2008-12-12.
- ^ Schlichting, Bill (2013-05-03). "Elmo turns 100". Curry Coastal Pilot. Western Communications. Archived from the original on 2015-01-25. Retrieved 2013-05-27.
Further reading
- Barnes, Mike (November 25, 2015). "Elmo Williams, Oscar-Winning Film Editor on 'High Noon,' Dies at 102". The Hollywood Reporter.
External links
- Elmo Williams at IMDb
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- Conrad A. Nervig (1934)
- Ralph Dawson (1935)
- Ralph Dawson (1936)
- Gene Havlick and Gene Milford (1937)
- Ralph Dawson (1938)
- Hal C. Kern and James E. Newcom (1939)
- Anne Bauchens (1940)
- William Holmes (1941)
- Daniel Mandell (1942)
- George Amy (1943)
- Barbara McLean (1944)
- Robert J. Kern (1945)
- Daniel Mandell (1946)
- Francis Lyon and Robert Parrish (1947)
- Paul Weatherwax (1948)
- Harry W. Gerstad (1949)
- Ralph E. Winters and Conrad A. Nervig (1950)
- William Hornbeck (1951)
- Elmo Williams and Harry W. Gerstad (1952)
- William Lyon (1953)
- Gene Milford (1954)
- Charles Nelson and William Lyon (1955)
- Gene Ruggiero and Paul Weatherwax (1956)
- Peter Taylor (1957)
- Adrienne Fazan (1958)
- Ralph E. Winters and John D. Dunning (1959)
- Daniel Mandell (1960)
- Thomas Stanford (1961)
- Anne V. Coates (1962)
- Harold F. Kress (1963)
- Cotton Warburton (1964)
- William Reynolds (1965)
- Fredric Steinkamp, Henry Berman, Stewart Linder and Frank Santillo (1966)
- Hal Ashby (1967)
- Frank P. Keller (1968)
- Françoise Bonnot (1969)
- Hugh S. Fowler (1970)
- Gerald B. Greenberg (1971)
- David Bretherton (1972)
- William Reynolds (1973)
- Harold F. Kress and Carl Kress (1974)
- Verna Fields (1975)
- Richard Halsey and Scott Conrad (1976)
- Paul Hirsch, Marcia Lucas, and Richard Chew (1977)
- Peter Zinner (1978)
- Alan Heim (1979)
- Thelma Schoonmaker (1980)
- Michael Kahn (1981)
- John Bloom (1982)
- Glenn Farr, Lisa Fruchtman, Tom Rolf, Stephen A. Rotter, and Douglas Stewart (1983)
- Jim Clark (1984)
- Thom Noble (1985)
- Claire Simpson (1986)
- Gabriella Cristiani (1987)
- Arthur Schmidt (1988)
- David Brenner and Joe Hutshing (1989)
- Neil Travis (1990)
- Joe Hutshing and Pietro Scalia (1991)
- Joel Cox (1992)
- Michael Kahn (1993)
- Arthur Schmidt (1994)
- Mike Hill and Daniel P. Hanley (1995)
- Walter Murch (1996)
- Conrad Buff IV, James Cameron, and Richard A. Harris (1997)
- Michael Kahn (1998)
- Zach Staenberg (1999)
- Stephen Mirrione (2000)
- Pietro Scalia (2001)
- Martin Walsh (2002)
- Jamie Selkirk (2003)
- Thelma Schoonmaker (2004)
- Hughes Winborne (2005)
- Thelma Schoonmaker (2006)
- Christopher Rouse (2007)
- Chris Dickens (2008)
- Chris Innis and Bob Murawski (2009)
- Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter (2010)
- Angus Wall and Kirk Baxter (2011)
- William Goldenberg (2012)
- Alfonso Cuarón and Mark Sanger (2013)
- Tom Cross (2014)
- Margaret Sixel (2015)
- John Gilbert (2016)
- Lee Smith (2017)
- John Ottman (2018)
- Andrew Buckland and Michael McCusker (2019)
- Mikkel E. G. Nielsen (2020)
- Joe Walker (2021)
- Paul Rogers (2022)
- Jennifer Lame (2023)
- Best Film Editing became Best Editing in 1999