William B. Murphy
Encyclopedia
William B. Murphy was an American
film editor who, in the course of a twenty-year career, served as president of American Cinema Editors
(ACE) from 1952 to 1955 and was distinguished in 1966 with ACE's Eddie Award for his work on the science fiction film
, Fantastic Voyage
, which also earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Editing.
Born in Mexia, a small city in Central Texas
' Limestone County
, William B. Murphy was 41 when his name first appeared in film credits as co-editor (with Richard Cahoon) of the independently-produced 1949 B-western, Massacre River, released by United Artists
. The following year, hired by 20th Century Fox
, he worked on several of the studio's 1950s "A" productions, including three Clifton Webb
vehicles, Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell
, Elopement (both 1951) and Mister Scoutmaster (1953), as well as Howard Hawks
' Cary Grant
-Ginger Rogers
1952 comedy, Monkey Business
, and the 1957 Pat Boone
-Shirley Jones
musical, April Love
. He also proved adept at westerns, editing Powder River (1953), Three Young Texans, The Gambler from Natchez (both 1954), Stranger on Horseback (1955), Mohawk
(1956) and The Lonely Man (1957).
Leaving Fox in 1957, he served as editorial supervisor on several film and television projects (The Bachelor Party
, Kings Go Forth
, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
) and, by 1959, returned as a full-time editor in features and TV episodes, with credits on the independent science fiction production, 4D Man
, along with at least eight installments of the hit ABC
crime drama, The Untouchables
.
In his final decade, 1960s, Murphy edited an entry in the series of films tailored for Elvis Presley
, Follow That Dream
(1962), followed by a psychiatric hospital melodrama, The Caretakers
(1963), and the big-budget 1965 spoof, John Goldfarb, Please Come Home
. Among his last three features, another top-dollar production, Fantastic Voyage, not only had a much bigger budget than his previous sci-fi assignment, 4D Man, but also proved to be a major moneymaker, ultimately going on to become one of the year's highest grossing films with Oscar nominations in five technical categories, two of which, Best Art Direction—Color
and Best Visual Effects, were selected as winners. Although Murphy lost in the Best Editing category to the Grand Prix team of Fredric Steinkamp
, Henry Berman, Stewart Linder and Frank Santillo, his win of ACE's Eddie Award, in addition to the film's other awards and nominations (Hugo
, Laurel
and the Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Award
), brought him accolades and professional renown at near-end of his career. His penultimate film, Roger Corman
's 1967 recreation of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
, returned to the same milieu he had covered while working on The Untouchables and, concluding his list of credits was Delbert Mann
's The Pink Jungle
, a tepidly reviewed 1968 comedy-adventure set in a South America
n jungle.
William B. Murphy died in Los Angeles
at the age of 62.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
film editor who, in the course of a twenty-year career, served as president of American Cinema Editors
American Cinema Editors
Founded in 1950, American Cinema Editors is an honorary society of film editors that are voted in based on the qualities of professional achievements, their education of others, and their dedication to editing itself. The society is not to be confused with an industry union, such as the I.A.T.S.E...
(ACE) from 1952 to 1955 and was distinguished in 1966 with ACE's Eddie Award for his work on the science fiction film
Science fiction film
Science fiction film is a film genre that uses science fiction: speculative, science-based depictions of phenomena that are not necessarily accepted by mainstream science, such as extraterrestrial life forms, alien worlds, extrasensory perception, and time travel, often along with futuristic...
, Fantastic Voyage
Fantastic Voyage
Fantastic Voyage is a 1966 science fiction film written by Harry Kleiner, based on a story by Otto Klement and Jerome Bixby.Bantam Books obtained the rights for a paperback novelization based on the screenplay and approached Isaac Asimov to write it....
, which also earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Editing.
Born in Mexia, a small city in Central Texas
Central Texas
Central Texas , is a region in the U.S. state of Texas. It is roughly bordered by San Marcos to Fredericksburg to Waco, and to Brenham, and includes the Austin–Round Rock, Killeen-Temple-Fort Hood, Bryan-College Station, and Waco metropolitan areas...
' Limestone County
Limestone County, Texas
Limestone County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 22,051. Its county seat is Groesbeck.-Geography:According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water....
, William B. Murphy was 41 when his name first appeared in film credits as co-editor (with Richard Cahoon) of the independently-produced 1949 B-western, Massacre River, released by United Artists
United Artists
United Artists Corporation is an American film studio. The original studio of that name was founded in 1919 by D. W. Griffith, Charles Chaplin, Mary Pickford and Douglas Fairbanks....
. The following year, hired by 20th Century Fox
20th Century Fox
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation — also known as 20th Century Fox, or simply 20th or Fox — is one of the six major American film studios...
, he worked on several of the studio's 1950s "A" productions, including three Clifton Webb
Clifton Webb
Clifton Webb was an American actor, dancer, and singer known for his Oscar-nominated roles in such films as Laura, The Razor's Edge, and Sitting Pretty...
vehicles, Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell
Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell
Mr. Belvedere Rings the Bell is a 1951 comedy film, the third and final one starring Clifton Webb as Lynn Belvedere. Mr. Belvedere lies about his age and lives in a senior citizens home to determine if there was any point in growing old...
, Elopement (both 1951) and Mister Scoutmaster (1953), as well as Howard Hawks
Howard Hawks
Howard Winchester Hawks was an American film director, producer and screenwriter of the classic Hollywood era...
' Cary Grant
Cary Grant
Archibald Alexander Leach , better known by his stage name Cary Grant, was an English actor who later took U.S. citizenship...
-Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers
Ginger Rogers was an American actress, dancer, and singer who appeared in film, and on stage, radio, and television throughout much of the 20th century....
1952 comedy, Monkey Business
Monkey Business (1952 film)
Monkey Business is a screwball comedy film directed by Howard Hawks and starring Cary Grant, Ginger Rogers, Charles Coburn, Marilyn Monroe, and Hugh Marlowe. To avoid confusion with the famous Marx Brothers movie of the same name, this film is sometimes referred to as Howard Hawks' Monkey...
, and the 1957 Pat Boone
Pat Boone
Charles Eugene "Pat" Boone is an American singer, actor and writer who has been a successful pop singer in the United States during the 1950s and early 1960s. He covered black artists' songs and sold more copies than his black counterparts...
-Shirley Jones
Shirley Jones
Shirley Mae Jones is an American singer and actress of stage, film and television. In her six decades of television, she starred as wholesome characters in a number of well-known musical films, such as Oklahoma! , Carousel , and The Music Man...
musical, April Love
April Love (film)
April Love is an American Musical directed by Henry Levin and produced by David Weisbart, based on the novel Phantom Filly by George Agnew Chamberlain . Photographed in CinemaScope and DeLuxe Color by Wilfred M...
. He also proved adept at westerns, editing Powder River (1953), Three Young Texans, The Gambler from Natchez (both 1954), Stranger on Horseback (1955), Mohawk
Mohawk (film)
Mohawk is a 1956 Pathécolor drama directed by Kurt Neumann, starring Scott Brady and Rita Gam. Jonathan Adams is an 18th century Boston artist, sent to Mohawk Valley to paint landscapes and portraits of Native Americans.-Cast:...
(1956) and The Lonely Man (1957).
Leaving Fox in 1957, he served as editorial supervisor on several film and television projects (The Bachelor Party
The Bachelor Party
The Bachelor Party is a 1953 teleplay by Paddy Chayefsky which was adapted by Chayefsky for a 1957 film.-Television:Chayefsky's teleplay was produced by Fred Coe for The Philco Television Playhouse on October 11, 1953...
, Kings Go Forth
Kings Go Forth
Kings Go Forth is a 1958 black-and-white World War II film starring Frank Sinatra, Tony Curtis, and Natalie Wood. The screenplay was written by Merle Miller from the novel of the same name by Joe David Brown, and the film was directed by Delmer Daves...
, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet
The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet is an American sitcom, airing on ABC from October 3, 1952 to September 3, 1966, starring the real life Nelson family. After a long run on radio, the show was brought to television where it continued its success, running on both radio and TV for a couple of years...
) and, by 1959, returned as a full-time editor in features and TV episodes, with credits on the independent science fiction production, 4D Man
4D Man
4D Man is a 1959 American science fiction independent film, produced by Jack H. Harris from his own original screenplay and directed by Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.-Plot:...
, along with at least eight installments of the hit ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
crime drama, The Untouchables
The Untouchables (1959 TV series)
The Untouchables is an American crime drama that ran from 1959 to 1963 on ABC. Based on the memoir of the same name by Eliot Ness and Oscar Fraley, it fictionalized the experiences of Eliot Ness, a real-life Prohibition agent, as he fought crime in Chicago during the 1930s with the help of a...
.
In his final decade, 1960s, Murphy edited an entry in the series of films tailored for Elvis Presley
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley was one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century. A cultural icon, he is widely known by the single name Elvis. He is often referred to as the "King of Rock and Roll" or simply "the King"....
, Follow That Dream
Follow that Dream
Follow That Dream is a 1962 musical film starring Elvis Presley made by Mirisch Productions. The movie was based on the 1959 novel Pioneer, Go Home! by Richard P. Powell. Producer Walter Mirisch liked the song Follow that Dream and retitled the picture...
(1962), followed by a psychiatric hospital melodrama, The Caretakers
The Caretakers
The Caretakers is a 1963 United Artists film drama starring Joan Crawford, Robert Stack, Polly Bergen and Janis Paige in a story about a mental hospital....
(1963), and the big-budget 1965 spoof, John Goldfarb, Please Come Home
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home
John Goldfarb, Please Come Home is a 1963 novel by William Peter Blatty that was adapted as a film by the same title, released in 1965.-Synopsis:...
. Among his last three features, another top-dollar production, Fantastic Voyage, not only had a much bigger budget than his previous sci-fi assignment, 4D Man, but also proved to be a major moneymaker, ultimately going on to become one of the year's highest grossing films with Oscar nominations in five technical categories, two of which, Best Art Direction—Color
Academy Award for Best Art Direction
The Academy Awards are the oldest awards ceremony for achievements in motion pictures. The Academy Award for Best Art Direction recognizes achievement in art direction on a film. The films below are listed with their production year, so the Oscar 2000 for best art direction went to a film from 1999...
and Best Visual Effects, were selected as winners. Although Murphy lost in the Best Editing category to the Grand Prix team of Fredric Steinkamp
Fredric Steinkamp
Fredric Steinkamp was an American film editor with more than 40 film credits. He had a longstanding, notable collaboration with director Sydney Pollack, editing nearly all of Pollack's films from They Shoot Horses, Don't They? through Sabrina .Steinkamp began his career working part-time in the...
, Henry Berman, Stewart Linder and Frank Santillo, his win of ACE's Eddie Award, in addition to the film's other awards and nominations (Hugo
Hugo Award
The Hugo Awards are given annually for the best science fiction or fantasy works and achievements of the previous year. The award is named after Hugo Gernsback, the founder of the pioneering science fiction magazine Amazing Stories, and was officially named the Science Fiction Achievement Awards...
, Laurel
Laurel Awards
The Laurel Awards were cinema awards to honor pictures, actors, actresses, directors and composers. This award was created by Motion Picture Exhibitor magazine, and ran from 1958 to 1968, then 1970 and 1971....
and the Motion Picture Sound Editors' Golden Reel Award
Golden Reel Award
Golden Reel Award may refer to:* Golden Reel Award , presented by the Genie Awards to high-grossing Canadian films...
), brought him accolades and professional renown at near-end of his career. His penultimate film, Roger Corman
Roger Corman
Roger William Corman is an American film producer, director and actor. He has mostly worked on low-budget B movies. Some of Corman's work has an established critical reputation, such as his cycle of films adapted from the tales of Edgar Allan Poe, and in 2009 he won an Honorary Academy Award for...
's 1967 recreation of The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (film)
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre is a 1967 gangster film based on the 1929 Chicago mass murder of seven members of the Northside gang, directed against George "Bugs" Moran by Al Capone...
, returned to the same milieu he had covered while working on The Untouchables and, concluding his list of credits was Delbert Mann
Delbert Mann
Delbert Martin Mann, Jr. was an American television and film director. He won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival and the Academy Award for Best Director for the film Marty...
's The Pink Jungle
The Pink Jungle
The Pink Jungle is a 1968 film thriller starring James Garner, George Kennedy and Eva Renzi. The film was directed by Delbert Mann and written by Charles Williams, adapting the 1965 novel Snake Water by Alan Williams.-Plot:...
, a tepidly reviewed 1968 comedy-adventure set in a South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
n jungle.
William B. Murphy died in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
at the age of 62.