Occupation Film editor Years active 1980–2010 | Name Sally Menke Role Film Editor | |
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Full Name Sally JoAnne Menke Died September 27, 2010, Bronson Canyon, Los Angeles, California, United States Children Isabella Parisot, Lucas Parisot Parents Charlotte Menke, Warren Wells Menke Similar People David Wasco, Lawrence Bender, Robert Richardson, Andrzej Sekula, Dean Parisot | ||
The Greenroom - Editor Sally Menke Interview (Part 1 of 2)
Sally JoAnne Menke (December 17, 1953 – September 27, 2010) was an American film and television editor.
Contents
- The Greenroom Editor Sally Menke Interview Part 1 of 2
- Inglourious Basterds Sally Menke
- Early life
- Career
- Personal life
- Death and memorials
- Filmography
- Awards and nominations
- References
Menke had a long-time collaboration with director Quentin Tarantino, having edited all of his films until she died. Menke was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing for Tarantino's Inglourious Basterds and Pulp Fiction, of which Variety's Todd McCarthy wrote, "Sally Menke's editing reps the definition of precision."
Inglourious Basterds - Sally Menke
Early life
Menke was born in Mineola, New York, the daughter of Charlotte, a teacher, and Dr. Warren Wells Menke, a professor of management at Clemson University. Menke graduated from New York University's Tisch School of the Arts Film Program. She earned a bachelor of fine arts in film in 1977.
Career
Menke's early career saw her edit documentaries for CBS. She worked on many films in the 1990s, including Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Heaven & Earth and Mulholland Falls.
Menke met Quentin Tarantino when he held interviews for an editor. Tarantino sent her the script for Reservoir Dogs and she said that she thought it was "amazing". Menke was hiking in Canada when she decided to call and see if she got the job and was told that she had been successful. Menke went on to work with Tarantino on everything he directed for the remainder of her life. Tarantino summarized their working relationship in 2007, saying that "The best collaborations are the director-editor teams, where they can finish each other's sentences" and that Menke was his "only, truly genuine collaborator".
Menke's final editing credit was on the thriller Peacock (2010), directed by Michael Lander. She had been selected as a member of the American Cinema Editors. On a 2012 listing of the 75 best edited films of all time, compiled by the Motion Picture Editors Guild, Pulp Fiction was listed eighteenth.
Personal life
Menke was married to director Aldo L. "Dean" Parisot in 1986 and the couple had two children, Lucas and Isabella.
Death and memorials
Menke had gone hiking the morning of September 27, 2010, with a friend and her dog. Menke's friend left her after an hour when she started to feel unwell in the heat. When Menke failed to come home, her friends alerted the police. Search dogs, a Los Angeles Police Department helicopter, and officers from patrol units spent hours in Griffith Park searching for her. Her locked car was found in a Griffith Park parking lot. Menke's body was found at the bottom of a ravine near 5600 block of Green Oak Drive on September 28, 2010. Her dog was found alive, sitting next to her body. No cause of death was immediately reported and it was unclear whether the extreme heat, 113 °F (45 °C) in downtown Los Angeles, was a factor. The coroner's office later determined that Menke's death was heat-related.
The Sundance Institute has created a memorial fellowship in film editing to honor Menke.
Tarantino's film Django Unchained (2012) was dedicated to her memory due to their long partnership.
Filmography
Menke's feature film credits as editor are tabulated below. She has two additional credits for editing television documentaries: Hans Bethe: Prophet of Energy (1980) and The Congress (1988).