Arthur Schmidt Dies: Oscar-Winning Film Editor Of ‘Forrest Gump,’ ‘Back To The Future,’ ‘Who Framed Roger Rabbit?’ Was 86
Arthur Schmidt, the film editor whose decades-long collaboration with director Robert Zemeckis on classics such as Forrest Gump, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Cast Away, Contact and all three Back to the Future films won him two Oscars, has died, Deadline has confirmed. He was 86.
Schmidt’s two Best Film Editing Oscars came for Roger Rabbit (1988) and Forrest Gump (1994). His other collaborations with Zemeckis included Death Becomes Her (1992) and What Lies Beneath (2000).
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“Arthur Schmidt was incredibly talented and a joy to work with,” Zemeckis said in a statement to Deadline. “He was a true gentleman and I am honored to have known him and to have created what we did together.”
Schmidt had a distinguished career beyond that artistic partnership.
He also worked with Michael Mann, Taylor Hackford, Michael Apted, Mike Nichols, Barry Sonnenfeld and many others — many of them more than once.
His father, Arthur P. Schmidt, was also an acclaimed film editor who had long collaborations with the likes of Billy Wilder – five films, including Sunset Boulevard – George Marshall and Jerry Lewis, on whose films he was an EP.
In addition to his Oscars, the younger Schmidt won ACE Eddies for Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (with Craig Wood and Stephen E. Rivkin, 2003), Forrest Gump, and for Mann’s The Jericho Mile (1979).
His other work includes a list of projects that could be career highlights for another editor: Coal Miner’s Daughter (1980), Fandango (1985), Ruthless People (1986), The Rocketeer (1991), The Last of the Mohicans (1992), Addams Family Values (1993), The Birdcage (1996) and Primary Colors (1998).
Schmidt received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award in 2009. It was presented by Zemeckis.
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