Issue link: http://digital.copcomm.com/i/1261193
M OT I O N P I CTU R E S O U N D E D I TO R S I 51 Else Blangsted: Legendary Music Editor AND HOLOCAUST SURIVOR PASSED AWAY AT AGE 99 Else Blangsted, a Holocaust survivor who went on to a legendary career as a film music editor that spanned four decades and included collaborations with luminaries such as Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg, Quincy Jones, Dave Grusin, Sydney Pollack, and many others, died Friday, May 1, 2020, from natural causes at her home in Los Angeles. She was 99 years of age, three weeks short of her 100th birthday. Blangsted's death was confirmed by her cousin, the Academy Award®– winning filmmaker and producer Deborah Oppenheimer. Born May 22, 1920, in Würzburg, Germany, Else led a life that was punctuated by passages of both triumph and tragedy. Although she modestly insisted that living through it all hadn't resulted in any surplus of wisdom, she did admit that, if anything, she maintained a healthy sense of humor through it all. Else's successful career and longevity in the business led to her working with some of the greatest filmmakers and composers in Hollywood, including Robert Redford, Steven Spielberg, Jack Nicholson, Sydney Pollack, Richard Pryor, Carl Reiner, Stanley Kramer, John Huston, Norman Jewison, Mark Rydell, Richard Benjamin, Richard Donner, Martin Ritt, Quincy Jones, Dudley Moore, Phil Alden Robinson, Dave Grusin, Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini, Brian DePalma, Joseph Sargent, Tony Bill, Leonard Nimoy, Randa Haines, Nicholas Meyer, Ulu Grosbard, Tony Richardson, and Ivan Reitman. Upon learning of her passing, longtime friend and composer Randy Newman said: "She was a brilliant woman. I loved her. She wished me well, even after she knew me." Else frequently collaborated with composer Dave Grusin, who said: "The loss of Else Blangsted is a tragic milestone in my life. For years, she was my anchor in the turbulent and frantic business of scoring for film. And while the ultimate use of film music is to enhance the movie, we also needed to satisfy the powers that be: the directors and producers (and sometimes the stars). But for me, the most pertinent question about my own work always was: 'Does Else think it's okay?' She was my personal quality guru, and she extended that humanity into many other parts of my life. Vielen dank, meine liebste Else." She built long-lasting relationships with many of the people she encountered during her career, including an enduring bond with the actor James Cromwell, who became her closest friend. "William Faulkner said, 'I believe man will not merely endure: he will prevail.' Else endured the rise of fascism and prevailed, even in Hollywood," said Cromwell. "Her indefatigable will, her fierce commitment to the work, her loyalty to those she loved, and her contempt of the banal made her a legend and a force to be reckoned with. To Else, everything good had music, and when she heard the music, she danced. We met at a wedding when she walked up to me and said, 'You want to dance?' And, boy, could she dance. We danced together for 30 years, and our last was as sublime as our first. She was my best friend, and, take her for all in all, I shall not look upon her like again." Else's life consisted of a remarkable series of events: growing up in a Jewish family in Nazi Germany, getting pregnant out of wedlock as a teen in 1936, attempting suicide, giving birth to a daughter she believed to have been stillborn, leaving Germany as a young woman to come to Hollywood, working as a nanny "queen of music editors" –(according to composer Perry Botkin)