Aaron Stell | |
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Born | |
Died | January 7, 1996 Los Angeles, California, United States | (aged 84)
Occupation | Film editor |
Aaron Stell (March 26, 1911 – January 7, 1996) was an American film editor with one hundred feature film credits and many additional credits for his television work. Stell worked for more than a decade at the start of his career at Columbia Pictures (1943–1955 credits), which was a major Hollywood studio in that era. Among his most noted films are Touch of Evil (directed by Orson Welles-1958), To Kill a Mockingbird (directed by Robert Mulligan-1962), and Silent Running (directed by Douglas Trumbull-1972).[1][2][3]
Touch of Evil, which was directed by Orson Welles, proved difficult for Stell; he was not the initial editor but instead chosen for re-editing, and he noted that Welles became "ill, depressed, and unhappy with the studio's impatience" in the process.[4]
Stell had been selected as a member of the American Cinema Editors. He was nominated for the American Cinema Editors Eddie award for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He was also nominated for Eddies for his television work on an episode of Ben Casey (1961) and on the mini-series Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones (1980). In 1996 he shared the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award with Desmond Marquette.
Stell died in Los Angeles at age 84.[5]
The finished sequence, which relies on Schikele's intelligently counterpoised score, is a masterclass in editing, with Aaron Stell moving deftly between detailed close-ups of the mechanical arms and intense shots of Dern's pained and sometimes terrified reaction ....