- Born
- Died
- Nickname
- Donn Hayes
- Height5′ 9″ (1.75 m)
- Before retiring from the industry in 1968, W. Donn Hayes edited motion pictures and television shows for more than 50 years. He started as an assistant editor at Universal Studios in 1916. His first job as a film editor came eight years later when he joined Columbia Pictures and made action films with William Fairbanks. As supervising editor he was responsible for the first 26 shows of the Schlitz Playhouse (1951) and the first 26 episodes of the series The Life of Riley (1948), for which he was also co-director. From 1954 to 1968 he was motion picture production specialist with the 1352nd Photo Group, United States Air Force, making highly classified report and training films.- IMDb Mini Biography By: Hayes, Michael D. <dhayes@ukans.edu>
- SpouseAda Felicatas Hayes (her death)
- Responsible for "American Cinema Editors" title.
- Responsible for cognomen "ACE," which appears after members' names on credit line.
- First editor of ACE publication "The Cinemeditor."
- Honored by American Cinema Editors, Inc. with a Gold Life Membership Card (no. 14) on Nov. 3, 1966.
- Winner of Emmy Award for "The Life of Riley" television show as supervising editor and co-director.
- . . . the question of "Who is cutting so-and-so's picture?" is the vernacular for "Who is the film editor on such and such a production?" Thus, the feeling has become prevalent that "all these fellows do is to cut the bad parts out of the film and stick them together again". This is, of course, a rank injustice and has minimized the great value of a group of men who are equally as important to motion picture production as is either the writer, the star, or the director.
- Common sense tells them that [film editing is] the final polish given to a two-, three- or four-million-dollar production, and that it must be important, but they do not know or realize how important. They are not aware, most of them, after many years in pictures, of the diversified background which the successful film editor must have.
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