Sally Menke
Born
Sally JoAnne Menke

(1953-12-17)December 17, 1953
Mineola, New York, U.S.
DiedSeptember 27, 2010(2010-09-27) (aged 56)
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
OccupationFilm editor
Years active1980–2010
Spouse
​
(m. 1986)​
Children2

Sally JoAnne Menke (December 17, 1953 – September 27, 2010) was an American film editor, who worked in cinema and television.[1][2] Over the span of her 30-year career in film, she accumulated more than 20 feature film credits.

She had a long-time collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino, and edited all of his films until her death in 2010. Menke was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds. She also received three British Academy Film Award nominations for her work on Tarantino's Kill Bill, Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds.

She was nominated 25 times for several different awards, and won 12 in her thirty-year career.

Early life

Menke was born in Mineola, New York to Charlotte Menke, a teacher, and Dr. Warren Wells Menke, a management professor at Clemson University. She attended the PK Yonge Developmental Research School in Gainesville, Florida and graduated in 1972. She would then move back to New York and study at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Film Program in 1977, graduating with a Bachelor of Arts degree in Film.[3]

Career

Menke edited documentaries for CBS in her early career.[3] The first feature she edited after graduating was Cold Feet, a 1983 comedy. She received more film work in the 1990s, working on films such as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Heaven & Earth and Mulholland Falls.[4][5]

In 1992, Menke met Quentin Tarantino when he was holding interviews for an editor.[6] "A cheap one", she once recalled, as this would be his debut feature-length film. Tarantino sent her the script for Reservoir Dogs and she said that she thought it was "amazing".[6] Menke was hiking in Canada when she learned she got the job.[6] After Tarantino and Menke collaborated for Reservoir Dogs, she edited every single one of his films after that up until her death: a total of eight films.[6] Tarantino summarized their working relationship in 2007, saying that "The best collaborations are the director–editor teams, where they can finish each other's sentences", and that Menke was his "only, truly genuine collaborator".[7] Together, they developed their signature style of dialogue-driven, slow-cut scenes composed with fast-cut action scenes.

She was selected as a member of the American Cinema Editors.[8] On the Motion Picture Editors Guild 2012 listing of the 75 best-edited films of all time, Pulp Fiction was listed 18th.[9]

Menke's final editing credit was on the film Peacock, a thriller released in 2010, directed by Michael Lander.

Personal life

Menke married film and television director Dean Parisot in 1986. Like Menke, he also graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts. The couple had two children, Lucas and Isabella.[1][3]

Death

Menke had gone hiking the morning of September 27, 2010, with a friend and her dog.[2] Menke's friend left her after an hour when she started to feel unwell in the heat. When Menke failed to come home, her friends alerted the police.[10] Search dogs, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter, and officers from patrol units spent hours in Griffith Park searching for her.[11] Her locked car was found in a Griffith Park parking lot.[10] Menke's body was found at the bottom of a ravine near 5600 block of Green Oak Drive on September 28, 2010.[10] Her dog was found alive, sitting next to her body.[2][10][11][12] The coroner's office later determined that Menke's death was heat-related. It was 113 °F (45 °C) in downtown Los Angeles the day she died.[13]

Filmography

Menke's feature film credits as editor are tabulated below. She has two additional credits for editing television documentaries: Hans Bethe: Prophet of Energy (1980) and The Congress (1988).

Year Film Director Other notes
1983 Cold Feet Bruce van Dusen
1990 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Steve Barron
1991 The Search for Signs of Intelligent Life in the Universe John Bailey
1992 Reservoir Dogs Quentin Tarantino 20/20 Awards for Best Film Editing
Nominated – Awards Circuit Community Awards for Best Film Editing
1993 Heaven & Earth Oliver Stone
1994 Pulp Fiction Quentin Tarantino Awards Circuit Community Awards for Best Editing
Nominated – Academy Award for Best Film Editing
Nominated – ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Editing
1995 Four Rooms Segment: "The Man from Hollywood"
1996 Mulholland Falls Lee Tamahori
1997 Nightwatch Ole Bornedal
Jackie Brown Quentin Tarantino
2000 All the Pretty Horses Billy Bob Thornton
2001 Daddy and Them
2003–2004 Kill Bill Quentin Tarantino Las Vegas Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
San Diego Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Editing
Nominated – Phoenix Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
Nominated – ACE Eddie for Best Edited Feature Film – Dramatic
Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
Nominated – American Cinema Editors for Best Editing
Nominated – Awards Circuit Community Awards
2004 The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing Wendy Apple Self appearance
2007 Death Proof Quentin Tarantino Nominated – Italian Online Movie Awards for Best Film Editing
2009 Inglourious Basterds Nominated – Academy Award for Best Film Editing
Nominated – BAFTA Award for Best Editing
Nominated – Broadcast Film Critics Association Award Best Editing
Nominated – Online Film Critics Society Award for Best Editing
2010 Peacock Michael Lander

Awards and nominations

  • 1995 – Pulp Fiction (nominated) – Academy Award – "Best Film Editing"[14]
  • 1995 – Pulp Fiction (nominated) – American Cinema Editors ACE Eddie Award – "Best Edited Feature Film"
  • 1995 – Pulp Fiction (nominated) – BAFTA Film Award – "Best Editing"[15]
  • 2003 – Kill Bill: Volume 1 (won) – San Diego Film Critics Society Awards – "Best Editing"
  • 2004 – Kill Bill: Volume 1 (nominated) – BAFTA Film Award – "Best Editing"[16]
  • 2004 – Kill Bill: Volume 1 (won) – Las Vegas Film Critics Society Awards – Sierra Award for "Best Editing"
  • 2005 – Kill Bill: Volume 2 (nominated) – American Cinema Editors ACE Eddie Award – "Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic)"
  • 2005 – Kill Bill: Volume 2 (nominated) – Online Film Critics Society OFCS Award – "Best Editing"
  • 2010 – Inglourious Basterds (nominated) – Academy Award – "Best Film Editing"[17]

References

  1. 1 2 "Sally Menke, Editor, Weds Aldo L. Parisot". The New York Times. August 10, 1986. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  2. 1 2 3 "Sally Menke, longtime film editor for Quentin Tarantino, found dead near Griffith Park". Los Angeles Times. September 28, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  3. 1 2 3 Fox, Margalit (September 28, 2010). "Sally Menke, Film Editor for Tarantino, Dies at 56". The New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  4. ↑ Campbell, Christopher (September 28, 2010). "Sally Menke and Quentin Tarantino. A Short Tribute to an Editor – Filmmaker Relationship". IndieWire. Archived from the original on October 1, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  5. ↑ Pulver, Andrew (September 28, 2010). "Sally Menke, Quentin Tarantino's long-time editor, found dead in LA". The Guardian. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Menke, Sally (December 6, 2009). "'Quentin Tarantino and I clicked'". The Guardian. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  7. ↑ Seif, Dena (February 19, 2007). "Editors pick Babel, Departed". Variety. Retrieved March 23, 2023.
  8. ↑ "American Cinema Editors Roster". American Cinema Editors. Archived from the original on September 23, 2010. Retrieved September 29, 2010.
  9. ↑ "The 75 Best Edited Films". Editors Guild Magazine. 1 (3). May 2012. Archived from the original on March 17, 2015.
  10. 1 2 3 4 Itzkoff, Dave (September 28, 2010). "Sally Menke, Film Editor for Tarantino and Other Directors, Is Dead". The New York Times. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  11. 1 2 "Quentin Tarantino's film editor found dead after hiking in scorching LA heat". Herald Sun. September 29, 2010. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  12. ↑ Chris, Meteorologist (June 17, 2009). "Los Angeles' Hottest Day On Record". weather.com. Archived from the original on September 30, 2010. Retrieved September 30, 2010.
  13. ↑ McLellan, Dennis; Blankstein, Andrew (September 29, 2010). "Sally Menke dies at 56; editor on Quentin Tarantino's movies". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 9, 2013.
  14. ↑ "The 67th Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved May 21, 2021.
  15. ↑ "BAFTA Winners 1994". British Academy Film Awards. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  16. ↑ "BAFTA Winners 2003". British Academy Film Awards. British Academy of Film and Television Arts. Retrieved September 28, 2010.
  17. ↑ "Nominees & Winners for the 82nd Academy Awards". Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved April 14, 2010.
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