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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Wolf

MovieHorrorDrama

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

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

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

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

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

Frantic

Frantic · 1988

MovieMysteryThriller

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

Biloxi Blues

Biloxi Blues · 1988

MovieComedyDrama

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Dry White Season

A Dry White Season · 1989

A Dry White Season

MovieDramaThriller

During the 1976 Soweto uprising, a white school teacher's life and values are threatened when he asks questions about the death of a young black boy who died in police custody.

Editor

The White River Kid

The White River Kid · 1999

The White River Kid

Two con men are traveling through the American South when they are held hostage by a serial killer who is running from the authorities.

Editor