Pioneering film editor Dede Allen dies at 86

[April 20, 2010]  LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Dede Allen, the film editor whose pioneering work on movies like "The Hustler" and "Bonnie and Clyde" brought a new approach to shaping the look and sound of American movies, has died. She was 86.

Her son Tom Fleischman tells the Los Angeles Times Allen died Saturday at her home in Los Angeles days after suffering a stroke.

With "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967, Allen became the first film editor to receive sole credit on a movie. She was nominated for Oscars for that movie, as well as "Dog Day Afternoon," "Reds" and "Wonder Boys."

Allen was the first to embrace European methods of editing by beginning sequences with close-ups or jump cuts and using the sound from the next shot while the previous scene was still playing.

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Information from: Los Angeles Times, http://www.latimes.com/

[Associated Press]

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