Aaron Stell

Aaron Stell
Born(1911-03-26)March 26, 1911
Pennsylvania, United States
DiedJanuary 7, 1996(1996-01-07) (aged 84)
Los Angeles, California, United States
OccupationFilm 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]

  1. ^ John Howard Reid (2005). Hollywood Gold: Films of the Forties and Fifties. Lulu.com. pp. 168–169. ISBN 978-1-4116-3524-1.
  2. ^ "BFI profile: Aaron Stell". British Film Institute. Archived from the original on 2012-07-14.
  3. ^ Kermode, Mark (2014). Silent Running. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 59. ISBN 9781844578344. 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 ....
  4. ^ Charles Higham (8 March 2004). The Films of Orson Welles. University of California Press. pp. 150–151. GGKEY:9FNTB9F9DXZ.
  5. ^ "STELL, Aaron age 84". Los Angeles Times. January 9, 1996. Retrieved May 23, 2023.