Rudi Fehr

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Rudi Fehr (July 6, 1911 - April 16, 1999) was a film editor whose credits include House of Wax (1953), I Confess (1953), Dial M for Murder (1954).^[1]^[2] After a long hiatus, Fehr returned to edit One from the Heart (1982) and the John Huston-directed Prizzi's Honor (1985), for which he was nominated for an Oscar, along with Kaja Fehr. In 1993 he received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award.

Fehr was born in Berlin, Germany. He decided upon a career in the film industry, and edited his first film, Der Schlemiel, in 1931. He then worked for several years with the producer Sam Spiegel, moving from Germany to Austria and England to avoid the restrictions of the Nazi regime. In 1935 he edited the Buster Keaton film The Invader. In 1936, Fehr moved to Hollywood, and landed a job with the Warner Brothers Studio, where he became an assistant editor to Warren Low. His first Hollywood editing credit was for the film My Love Came Back (1940). For the next fifteen years Fehr edited numerous studio films, including A Stolen Life (starring Bette Davis, 1946) and John Huston's Key Largo (starring Humphrey Bogart, 1948). In the early 1950s Fehr edited two of Alfred Hitchcock's films, I Confess (1953) and Dial M for Murder (1954).

Fehr had become a producer in 1952, and following Dial M for Murder he didn't edit another film for nearly 30 years. When Fehr retired from Warner Brothers in 1976, he had attained the position of head of post-production. He then returned to Europe to supervise foreign-language adaptations of Warner Bros. films from France, Germany, Italy and Spain. In 1980, Fehr became head of post-production for Francis Ford Coppola's Zoetrope Productions. In 1982, Fehr returned to edit Coppola's One from the Heart (1982). In 1985, he edited John Huston's Prizzi's Honor, for which he and his co-editor (and daughter) Kaja Feher were nominated for an Academy Award.

Fehr was the founder of the Los Angeles-Berlin Sister City Committee, and he was awarded the Grand Medal of Merit from the president of West Germany in 1983. He was married to actress Maris Wrixon, and was the father of three daughters.

[edit] References

^ Eyles, Allen (1999). "Obituary: Rudi Fehr," The Independent (London), June 16, 1999 . Online version retrieved Dec. 22, 2007.
^ Pesselnick, Jill (1999). "Rudi Fehr," Variety May 12, 1999. Online version retrieved Dec. 22, 2007.