Dorothy Spencer Video | Interviews

Dorothy Spencer (2 February 1909 – 23 May 2002) was an American film editor. Nominated for an Academy Award on several occasions she is remembered for editing several of director John Ford's best known movies, including Stagecoach (1939) and what film critic Roger Ebert calls, "Ford's greatest Western," My Darling Clementine. She was born in Covington, Kentucky Dorothy Spencer entered the film industry when she joined the employ of the Consolidated-Aller Lab in 1924. She moved to Fox, becoming a member of the editorial department. Worked at First National Studios assisting editors Louis... MORE

Dorothy Spencer (2 February 1909 – 23 May 2002) was an American film editor. Nominated for an Academy Award on several occasions she is remembered for editing several of director John Ford's best known movies, including Stagecoach (1939) and what film critic Roger Ebert calls, "Ford's greatest Western," My Darling Clementine. She was born in Covington, Kentucky Dorothy Spencer entered the film industry when she joined the employ of the Consolidated-Aller Lab in 1924. She moved to Fox, becoming a member of the editorial department. Worked at First National Studios assisting editors Louis Loeffler, Al DeGaetano and Irene Morra. At Fox, she and Loeffler were part of an editorial team that also included, at one time or another, Barbara McLean, Robert Simpson, William Reynolds and Hugh S. Fowler. Dorothy Spencer also edited several of Alfred Hitchcock's films such as Foreign Correspondent (1940) and 1944's Lifeboat (featuring a particularly feisty and well-edited Tallulah Bankhead performance). Spencer also edited director Elia Kazan's feature film debut, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1945). Spencer edited the disaster film Earthquake (1974) starring Charlton Heston, Ava Gardner and George LESS