Editing

Sam O'Steen

Born November 6, 1923 · St. Francis, Arkansas, USA

Died October 11, 2000 · aged 76

Sam O'Steen was an American film editor and director, renowned for his collaborations with director Mike Nichols. His editing work on films like The Graduate (1967), Rosemary's Baby (1968), and Chinatown (1974) earned him critical acclaim and multiple award nominations. O'Steen's precise editing style significantly influenced the pacing and narrative structure of these classic films. He also dire…

Known For

The Graduate

The Graduate · 1967

MovieDramaRomance

A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.

Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby · 1968

Rosemary's Baby

MovieDramaHorror

A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.

Chinatown

Chinatown · 1974

MovieCrimeMystery

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

Wolf

MovieHorrorDrama

An aging publisher becomes a demon wolf and, with this newfound youthful vigor, fights to keep his job.

Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke · 1967

MovieDramaCrime

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Working Girl

Working Girl · 1988

MovieComedyRomance

When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she takes a risky chance to reclaim it by impersonating him and running the project from his position.

Carnal Knowledge

Carnal Knowledge · 1971

Carnal Knowledge

MovieDramaRomance

Two lifelong friends navigate complex sexual encounters and emotional entanglements, wrestling with societal norms and personal desires.

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? · 1966

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their marriage.

Filmography

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The Graduate

The Graduate · 1967

MovieDramaRomance

A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.

Editor

Rosemary's Baby

Rosemary's Baby · 1968

Rosemary's Baby

MovieDramaHorror

A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.

Editor

Chinatown

Chinatown · 1974

MovieCrimeMystery

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

Editor

Wolf

MovieHorrorDrama

An aging publisher becomes a demon wolf and, with this newfound youthful vigor, fights to keep his job.

Editor

Cool Hand Luke

Cool Hand Luke · 1967

MovieDramaCrime

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

Editor

Working Girl

Working Girl · 1988

MovieComedyRomance

When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she takes a risky chance to reclaim it by impersonating him and running the project from his position.

Editor

Carnal Knowledge

Carnal Knowledge · 1971

Carnal Knowledge

MovieDramaRomance

Two lifelong friends navigate complex sexual encounters and emotional entanglements, wrestling with societal norms and personal desires.

Editor

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf? · 1966

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their marriage.

Editor

Frantic

Frantic · 1988

MovieMysteryCrime

The wife of an American doctor suddenly vanishes in Paris. To find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells.

Editor

Amityville II: The Possession

Amityville II: The Possession · 1982

Amityville II: The Possession

Anthony and Dolores Montelli, along with their four children, move into their dream house in Amityville and are immediately plagued by a string of paranormal experiences. When the abusive Anthony wrongly places the blame on the children, Dolores recruits a local Catholic priest to exorcise the house.

Editor

Catch-22

Catch-22 · 1970

A WWII military pilot makes a valiant effort to be certified insane in order to be excused from flying missions. But there's a catch.

Editor

Regarding Henry

Regarding Henry · 1991

Regarding Henry

MovieRomanceDrama

After being shot, a lawyer loses his memory and must relearn speech and mobility, but he has a loving family to support him.

Editor

Consenting Adults

Consenting Adults · 1992

Consenting Adults

MovieThrillerDrama

Richard and Priscilla Parker are an ordinary suburban couple whose lives are invaded and rocked by their hedonistic, secretive new neighbors, Eddy and Kay Otis.

Editor

Postcards from the Edge

Postcards from the Edge · 1990

Postcards from the Edge

MovieComedyDrama

A substance-addicted actress tries to look on the bright side even as she's forced to move back in with her mother to avoid unemployment.

Editor

Straight Time

Straight Time · 1978

MovieCrimeDrama

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.

Editor

Heartburn

Heartburn · 1986

MovieComedyDrama

She's a magazine writer who gives up her career for love and family. He's a playboy newspaper columnist who can't quite give up his old tricks. And if that combination doesn't give a relationship heartburn, nothing will.

Editor

Robin and the 7 Hoods

Robin and the 7 Hoods · 1964

Robin and the 7 Hoods

MovieComedyCrime

Set in Prohibition era Chicago, bootlegger Robbo and his cronies refuse to pay the greedy Guy Gisborne a cut of their profits after Guy shoots mob boss Big Jim and takes over. When Big Jim's daughter, Marian, gives Robbo a large sum, believing he has avenged her father's death, the gangster donates to an orphanage, cementing his reputation as a softhearted hood.

Editor

Night Falls on Manhattan

Night Falls on Manhattan · 1997

Night Falls on Manhattan

MovieDramaCrime

A newly elected District attorney finds himself in the middle of a police corruption investigation that may involve his father and his partner.

Editor

Biloxi Blues

Biloxi Blues · 1988

MovieComedyDrama

A Jewish teenager sets three goals: lose his virginity, become a writer, and survive World War II.

Editor

Auntie Mame

Auntie Mame · 1958

MovieComedyDrama

Mame Dennis, a progressive and independent woman of the 1920s, is left to care for her nephew Patrick after his wealthy father dies. Conflict ensues when the executor of the father's estate objects to the aunt's lifestyle and tries to force her to send Patrick to prep school.

Assistant Editor

Hurricane

Hurricane · 1979

MovieDramaAction

The story of the desperate love affair between a young Samoan chief and a beautiful American painter, against the will of her father, the powerful governor of the island. Amid this man-made tension comes a powerful hurricane so devastating, the lives of the lovers and the entire island are imperiled.

Editor

Silkwood

Silkwood · 1983

Like most of the people in her town, Karen Silkwood works at the local nuclear plant producing highly radioactive plutonium. Exposed one day to a lethal dose of radiation, Karen faces the blank walls of corporate indifference and denial. As her illness increases, her protest grows louder and she becomes an obvious danger to the powers that be.

Editor

The Day of the Dolphin

The Day of the Dolphin · 1973

The Day of the Dolphin

MovieDramaScience Fiction

A marine biologist teaches his dolphins to communicate in English but shady characters plan to kidnap the trained mammals for a more sinister purpose.

Editor

None But the Brave

None But the Brave · 1965

None But the Brave

American and Japanese soldiers, stranded on a tiny Pacific island during World War II, must make a temporary truce and cooperate to survive various tribulations. Told through the eyes of the American and Japanese unit commanders, who must deal with an atmosphere of growing distrust and tension between their men.

Editor