Manuel Martínez del Campo y Cuevas (14 November 1913 in
Mexico City
Mexico City ( es, link=no, Ciudad de México, ; abbr.: CDMX; Nahuatl: ''Altepetl Mexico'') is the capital and largest city of Mexico, and the most populous city in North America. One of the world's alpha cities, it is located in the Valley o ...
– 16 February 1969 in
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
) was a Mexican
film editor
Film editing is both a creative and a technical part of the post-production process of filmmaking. The term is derived from the traditional process of working with film which increasingly involves the use of digital technology.
The film edit ...
working in Hollywood and British film.
Early life and education
Manuel Martínez del Campo y Cuevas was born on 14 November 1913 in Mexico City. He was the son of Manuel Martínez del Campo y Lynch and Mercedes Cuevas. His father was an Irish Mexican diplomat who had only arrived in Mexico ten years earlier, aged twenty, from London where his own father had headed the
Mexican Embassy. In 1914 he moved to New York after his father was posted to the Mexican consulate in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
where he was to help organize the
Niagara Falls peace conference
The Niagara Falls peace conference, sometimes referred to as the ABC Conference, started on May 20, 1914, when representatives from Argentina, Brazil and Chile—the ABC Powers—met in Niagara Falls, Canada, for diplomatic negotiations in ord ...
.
Del Campo was brought up in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
. Around 1916, his father was recruited by
Sir William Wiseman, an old acquaintance of his, to join the New York station of
MI1c, section V (later known as
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service (SIS), commonly known as MI6 ( Military Intelligence, Section 6), is the foreign intelligence service of the United Kingdom, tasked mainly with the covert overseas collection and analysis of human intelligenc ...
or MI6), which had the specific mission of “campaigning against German operations in the US as well as the Irish and Indian nationalists with whom the Germans plotted”.
As his father before him, del Campo was educated at
Clifton College
''The spirit nourishes within''
, established = 160 years ago
, closed =
, type = Public schoolIndependent boarding and day school
, religion = Christian
, president =
, head_label = Head of College
, head ...
.
Mary Astor and later life
Wanting to become an actor, del Campo went to
California
California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...
in 1935, where he soon met Mary Astor. In a ceremony kept secret from the press and his family, del Campo married Astor in 1936, becoming her third husband. Together they had a son, Anthony Paul "Tono" del Campo.
In 1941, del Campo joined the newly formed
No. 415 Squadron RCAF
The numero sign or numero symbol, №, (also represented as Nº, No, No. or no.), is a typographic abbreviation of the word ''number''(''s'') indicating ordinal numeration, especially in names and titles. For example, using the numero sign, t ...
as a
Flight lieutenant
Flight lieutenant is a junior commissioned rank in air forces that use the Royal Air Force (RAF) system of ranks, especially in Commonwealth countries. It has a NATO rank code of OF-2. Flight lieutenant is abbreviated as Flt Lt in the India ...
. The squadron was stationed at
Thorney Island and was armed with
Hampdens.
As a result of del Campo's enlistment the couple drifted apart, and divorced amicably in 1941. The marriage, although hardly a success, was a happy one. Astor would later recall Manuel, or "Mike" as she called him, as a kind and decent man, albeit an irresponsible one as well, as he rarely contacted her or their son after the war.
[Mary Astor - 'My Story: An Autobiography'. Doubleday & Company Inc., Garden City, New York, 1959]
After the
Second World War
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
ended, del Campo stayed in the UK, where he married two more times. He worked as an editor until his death in 1969 in London.
Partial filmography
*''
The Adventures of Long John Silver
''The Adventures of Long John Silver'' is a TV series about the Long John Silver character from Robert Louis Stevenson's 1883 novel ''Treasure Island''. It was made in 1954 in colour in Australia for the American and British markets before the ...
'' (1958-59 - five episodes)
*''
His Majesty O'Keefe
''His Majesty O'Keefe'' is a 1954 American adventure film directed by Byron Haskin and starring Burt Lancaster. The cast also included Joan Rice, André Morell, Abraham Sofaer, Archie Savage, and Benson Fong. The screenplay by Borden Chase and ...
'' (
1954
Events
January
* January 1 – The Soviet Union ceases to demand war reparations from West Germany.
* January 3 – The Italian broadcaster RAI officially begins transmitting.
* January 7 – Georgetown-IBM experiment: The fir ...
)
*''
Miss Robin Hood
''Miss Robin Hood'' is a 1952 British comedy film directed by John Guillermin, and starring Margaret Rutherford and Richard Hearne. Other actors involved include Dora Bryan, James Robertson Justice, Peter Jones (actor), Peter Jones, Sid James, R ...
'' (
1952
Events January–February
* January 26 – Black Saturday in Egypt: Rioters burn Cairo's central business district, targeting British and upper-class Egyptian businesses.
* February 6
** Princess Elizabeth, Duchess of Edinburgh, becomes m ...
)
*''
No Highway in the Sky
''No Highway in the Sky'' (also known as ''No Highway'') is a 1951 British black-and-white aviation drama film from 20th Century Fox, produced by Louis D. Lighton, directed by Henry Koster, that stars James Stewart, Marlene Dietrich, Glynis Joh ...
'' (
1951
Events
January
* January 4 – Korean War: Third Battle of Seoul – Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul for the second time (having lost the Second Battle of Seoul in September 1950).
* January 9 – The Government of the United ...
)
*''
The Black Rose
''The Black Rose'' is a 1950 American-British adventure film directed by Henry Hathaway and starring Tyrone Power and Orson Welles.
Talbot Jennings' screenplay was loosely based on a 1945 novel of the same name by Canadian author Thomas B. C ...
'' (
1950
Events January
* January 1 – The International Police Association (IPA) – the largest police organization in the world – is formed.
* January 5 – 1950 Sverdlovsk plane crash, Sverdlovsk plane crash: ''Aeroflot'' Lisunov Li-2 cr ...
)
*''
No Orchids for Miss Blandish'' (
1948
Events January
* January 1
** The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT) is inaugurated.
** The Constitution of New Jersey (later subject to amendment) goes into effect.
** The railways of Britain are nationalized, to form British ...
)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:del Campo, Manuel
People educated at Clifton College
1913 births
1969 deaths
Mexican film editors
People from Mexico City