Samuel Alexander O'Steen (November 6, 1923 – October 11, 2000) was an
American film editor and director. He had an
extended, notable collaboration with the director
Mike Nichols, with whom he edited twelve films between 1966 and 1994. Among the notable films that O'Steen edited were
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (directed by Mike Nichols, 1966),
Cool Hand Luke (directed by
Stuart Rosenberg, 1967),
The Graduate (directed by Mike Nichols, 1967),
Rosemary's Baby (directed by
Roman Polanski, 1968), and
Chinatown (directed by Roman Polanski, 1974).
As a child in Burbank, California, O'Steen would try to make it onto the Warner Bros. lot hoping that it could be an entree to work in the editing room. O'Steen was finally able to secure a position as an assistant editor in 1956, when he became George Tomasini's assistant editor on Alfred Hitchcock's 1957 film The Wrong Man. Within a year, O'Steen had become the editor on Mike Nichols' first film as a director, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?. O'Steen was Nichols' principal editor for nearly thirty years, during which he edited twelve of Nichols' films; their last film together was Wolf (1994).
O'Steen had been working as a principal editor for only three years when he edited Nichols' second film, The Graduate, but Patrick J. Sauer considers this film to be the epitome of O'Steen's editing:
In his volume from the History of American Cinema series, Paul Monaco emphasizes the innovative aspects of the editing of The Graduate:
O'Steen directed seven films for television in the 1970s and 1980s, most notably the film Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975). He also directed one feature film Sparkle (1976).
O'Steen's editing of The Graduate (1967) was honored by a BAFTA Award for Best Editing, and he was nominated for this award again for Chinatown (1974). He was nominated three times for the Academy Award for Film Editing for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf (1966), Chinatown (1974), and Silkwood (directed by Mike Nichols, 1983). In 1976, O'Steen won the "Most Outstanding Television Director" award from the Directors Guild of America (DGA), and his film Queen of the Stardust Ballroom won the "Outstanding Directorial Achievement in Movies for Television" award from the DGA. O'Steen was also nominated for an Emmy award for "Outstanding Directing in a Special Program - Drama or Comedy" for his work on Queen of the Stardust Ballroom.
O'Steen was married twice, and he had four daughters. Sam O'Steen's memoir of his editing career, Cut to the Chase: Forty-Five Years of Editing America's Favorite Movies, The book is written mostly as a transcript of Sam O'Steen's responses to questions posed by Bobbie O'Steen, with sidebars about individual films and filmmakers. Ray Zone has characterized it as "one of the very best anecdotal histories of filmmaking in print."
Filmography (Editor)
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! Year
! Film
! Director
! Other notes
|-
|rowspan= 3|1964
|
Youngblood Hawke
|
Delmer Daves
|
|-
|
Robin and the 7 Hoods
|
Gordon Douglas
|
|-
|
Kisses for My President
|
Curtis Bernhardt
|
|-
| rowspan= 2|1965
|
None But The Brave
|
Frank Sinatra
|
|-
|
Marriage on the Rocks
|
Jack Donohue
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1966
|
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?
|
Mike Nichols
| (nominated)
Academy Award for Film Editing
|-
|rowspan= 3|1967
|
Hotel
|
Richard Quine
|
|-
|
Cool Hand Luke
|
Stuart Rosenberg
|
|-
|
The Graduate
|
Mike Nichols
|
BAFTA Award for Best Editing
|-
|rowspan= 1|1968
|
Rosemary's Baby
|
Roman Polanski
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1969
|
The Sterile Cuckoo
|
Alan J. Pakula
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1970
|
Catch-22
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1971
|
Carnal Knowledge
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1972
|
Portnoy's Complaint
|
Ernest Lehman
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1973
|
The Day of the Dolphin
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1974
|
Chinatown
|
Roman Polanski
| (nominated)
BAFTA and
Academy Awards for Best Editing
|-
|rowspan= 1|1978
|
Straight Time
|
Ulu Grosbard
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1979
|
Hurricane
|
Jan Troell
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1982
|
|
Damiano Damiani
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1983
|
Silkwood
| Mike Nichols
| (nominated)
Academy Award for Film Editing
|-
|rowspan= 1|1986
|
Heartburn
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1987
|
Nadine
|
Robert Benton
|
|-
|rowspan= 3|1988
|
Frantic
| Roman Polanski
|
|-
|
Biloxi Blues
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|
Working Girl
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1989
|
A Dry White Season
|
Euzhan Palcy
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1990
|
Postcards from the Edge
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1991
|
Regarding Henry
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1992
|
Consenting Adults
| Alan J. Pakula
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1994
|
Wolf
| Mike Nichols
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1997
|
Night Falls on Manhattan
|
Sidney Lumet
|
|-
|rowspan= 1|1999
|
The White River Kid
|
Arne Glimcher
|
|-
|}
References
External links
Bobbie O'Steen Talks about her books and Sam in a podcast
Category:1923 births
Category:2000 deaths
Category:people from Greene County, Arkansas
Category:American film editors
