Anne V. Coates

A trailblazer for women in Hollywood's technical fields, Oscar winner Anne V. Coates edited more than 50 films in a 60-year career including "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962), "The Elephant Man" (1980) and "Out of Sight" (1998). Born in Reigate, England in 1925, Coates initially dreamed of becoming a race-horse trainer before William Wyler's "Wuthering Heights" (1939) inspired her to pursue a career in film. Following a brief nursing stint treating WWII victims at ground-breaking plastic surgeon Sir Archibald McIndoe's hospital, Coates persuaded her initially reluctant uncle, and founder of the Rank film company, J. Arthur Rank, to help secure her a job fixing prints of religious shorts at Elstree Studios. Although her uncle hoped the position would deter her from filmmaking ambitions, it only encouraged her further. Coates then moved to Pinewood Studios where she served as a second assistant film editor to Michael Powell on "The End of the River" (1947) and "The Red Shoes" (1948) and received her first credit on "The Pickwick Papers" (1952). Coates went on to work on the likes of "Grand National Night" (1953), "To Paris with Love" (1955) and "Tunes of Glory" (1960), but her major breakthrough arrived when she was chosen to work with David Lean on the historical epic, "Lawrence of Arabia" (1962). Coates had to trim down an astonishing 31 miles of footage during the arduous editing process, but was rewarded for her efforts with a Best Film Editing Oscar. After picking up another Academy Award nod for her work on "Becket" (1964), Coates added the likes of "Those Magnificent Men in Their Flying Machines" (1965), "Murder on the Orient Express" (1974) and "The Eagle Has Landed" (1976) to her filmography, and also served as producer on supernatural thriller "The Medusa Touch" (1978). Coates added to her tally of Oscar nominations with "The Elephant Man" (1980), "In the Line of Fire" (1992) and "Out of Sight" (1998), worked on several other awards favorites including "Chaplin" (1992), "Erin Brockovich" (2000) and "Unfaithful" (2002), and eventually moved into digital editing with sci-fi adaptation "Congo" (1995). Coates was awarded an OBE for her services to the film industry in 2003, later received lifetime accolades at the Oscars, BAFTAs and Los Angeles Film Critics Association, and continued to work well into her eighties on films such as "The Golden Compass" (2007), "Extraordinary Measures" (2010) and "Fifty Shades of Grey" (2015). She passed away at Los Angeles' Motion Picture Country Home and Hospital in 2018, aged 92, leaving behind sons Anthony and James and daughter Emma, all three of whom also enjoyed careers as film directors or editors.