James Elmo Williams (April 30, 1913 – November 25, 2015) was an American film and television editor, producer, director and executive. His work on the film ''

High Noon ''High Noon'' is a 1952 American Western film produced by Stanley Kramer from a screenplay by Carl Foreman, directed by Fred Zinnemann, and starring Gary Cooper. The plot, which occurs in real time, centers on a town marshal whose sense of ...

'' (1952) received the Academy Award for Best Film Editing. In 2006, Williams published ''Elmo Williams: A Hollywood Memoir''.

Career

Among the films that Williams edited are ''

'' (1952), ''

20,000 Leagues Under the Sea ''Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Seas'' (french: Vingt mille lieues sous les mers) is a classic science fiction adventure novel by French writer Jules Verne. The novel was originally serialized from March 1869 through June 1870 in Pierre-J ...

'' (1954) and '' The Vikings'' (1958). Williams was involved in the production of '' The Longest Day'' (1962) and ''

Cleopatra Cleopatra VII Philopator ( grc-gre, Κλεοπάτρα Φιλοπάτωρ}, "Cleopatra the father-beloved"; 69 BC10 August 30 BC) was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC, and its last active ruler.She was also a ...

'' (1963), and he was a producer of the film ''

Tora! Tora! Tora! ''Tora! Tora! Tora!'' ( ja, トラ・トラ・トラ！) is a 1970 epic film, epic war film that dramatizes the Empire of Japan, Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. The film was produced by Elmo Williams and directed by Richard Fleischer, T ...

'' (1970). Between 1971 and 1974, Williams was the Head of Production for

20th Century Fox 20th Century Studios, Inc. (previously known as 20th Century Fox) is an American film production company headquartered at the Fox Studio Lot in the Century City area of Los Angeles. As of 2019, it serves as a film production arm of Walt Dis ...

. Williams edited the film ''

Design for Death ''Design for Death'' is a 1947 American documentary film that won the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. It was based on a shorter U.S. Army training film, '' Our Job in Japan'', that had been produced in 1945–1946 for the soldiers oc ...

'' (1947), which won an

Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature An academy (Attic Greek: Ἀκαδήμεια; Koine Greek Ἀκαδημία) is an institution of secondary education, secondary or tertiary education, tertiary higher education, higher learning (and generally also research or honorary membershi ...

. Williams won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for his work on 1952's ''

'' (directed by Fred Zinnemann and co-edited with

Harry W. Gerstad Harry W. Gerstad (born Harry Donald Gerstad; June 11, 1909 – July 17, 2002) was an American film editor who sometimes directed films. The Academy Award-winning editor also worked on television. He edited as well as directed for the 1950s prog ...

, although he was subordinate to Gerstad), and was nominated again for 1954's ''

'' (directed by

Richard Fleischer Richard O. Fleischer (; December 8, 1916 – March 25, 2006) was an American film director whose career spanned more than four decades, beginning at the height of the Golden Age of Hollywood and lasting through the American New Wave. Though he ...

). ''

'' was listed as the 54th best-edited film of all time in a 2012 survey of members of the Motion Picture Editors Guild, and the editing of ''High Noon'' is probably Williams' most studied accomplishment. Critic

James Berardinelli James Berardinelli (born September 25, 1967) is an American film critic and former engineer. His reviews are mainly published on his blog ''ReelViews.'' Approved as a critic by the aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, he has published two collections of r ...

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." In his memoir, Williams states that this well-known montage was specifically edited to match the music composed for the scene by

Dimitri Tiomkin Dimitri Zinovievich Tiomkin (, ; May 10, 1894 – November 11, 1979) was a Russian-born American film composer and conductor. Classically trained in St. Petersburg, Russia before the Bolshevik Revolution, he moved to Berlin and then New York City ...

. 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 ''

'' (1970), also for

Darryl F. Zanuck Darryl Francis Zanuck (September 5, 1902December 22, 1979) was an American film producer and studio executive; he earlier contributed stories for films starting in the silent era. He played a major part in the Hollywood studio system as one of ...

. Williams was elected to membership in the

American Cinema Editors Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors (ACE) is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing. Members use the post-nominal ...

(ACE). 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 14th, 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. The couple retired to Brookings, Oregon, on the

Oregon Coast The Oregon Coast is a coastal region of the U.S. state of Oregon. It is bordered by the Pacific Ocean to its west and the Oregon Coast Range to the east, and stretches approximately from the California state border in the south to the Columbia ...

in 1983. In December 2008, Williams donated a public chapel to the city in memory of his wife. The chapel, named Capella By The Sea, is located in Azalea Park in Brookings. He turned 100 in April 2013. Elmo Williams died at his home in Brookings on November 25, 2015, at the age of 102. 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 A Zeppelin is a type of rigid airship named after the German inventor Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin () who pioneered rigid airship development at the beginning of the 20th century. Zeppelin's notions were first formulated in 1874Eckener 1938, pp ...

''.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Williams, Elmo 1913 births 2015 deaths American centenarians American Cinema Editors American film editors American memoirists Best Film Editing Academy Award winners Men centenarians People from Curry County, Oregon People from Lone Wolf, Oklahoma Writers from Oklahoma Writers from Oregon

Career

Personal life

References

Further reading

External links