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50 C I N E M O N T A G E I N M E M O R I A M JONES (CONTINUED) the original editor on the film. Jones was brought in on short notice, ultimately molding the film into the masterpiece it became. "Jones was starting from scratch," Dawson told CineMontage this week. "It was a situation where time was of the es- sence. The work that he did was so quick and so good." Ashby, who had won acclaim (and an Oscar) as a picture editor himself, kicked off his directorial career with "The Land- lord" (1970) and "Harold and Maude" (1971). Those classic films, edited by Wil- liam A. Sawyer and Edward Warschilka, featured a flashier, more ostentatious s t y l e o f e d i t i n g i n ke e p i n g w i t h t h e spirit of the New Hollywood movement, something Jones moved away from. "You see in the films that Jones cut for him a greater simplicity in the editing that allowed the strength of the material to stand out," Dawson said. Jones' sedate, contemplative editorial rhythms also added an extra dimension of melancholy to the sex farce "Sham- poo," starring Warren Beatty as George Roundy, equally sought-after as a hair- dresser and Don Juan figure in the lives of a bevy of Los Angeles women in 1968, including Goldie Hawn, Julie Christie, and Lee Grant. "He and Warren hit it off, and he worked with Warren on almost every thing," said Zimmerman, who, with Jones, co-edited Beatty's "Heaven Can Wait" (1978). Jones then edited the Beatty-produced "Love Affair" (1994) and, with Billy Weber, ACE, co-edited the Beatty-directed "Bulworth" (1998). Confident in Jones' ability to bring out the best in the footage he shot, Ashby gave himself permission to step away from day-to-day involvement in postpro- duction. "In simple terms, [Jones] freed him to be a director first and to be able to not feel a sense of obligation to be in the cutting room too much," Dawson said. "It allowed him to sort of live his life a little bit: He'd finish production and hand off the film to Bob Jones. . . He knew that the movie was in good hands." Yet Ashby had bigger plans for Jones, who was tasked by the director to get the screenplay for "Coming Home" ready to shoot. "There were a decent number of credited and uncredited writers on that film, including Ashby himself," Dawson s a i d . "J o n e s w a s s o m e b o d y t h a t h e trusted. It's a testament to his incredible abilities, and that rare combination of skills, that the film is so good." After win- ning an Oscar for "Coming Home," Jones wrote the script used during the filming of "Being There" (though Jerzy Kosinski, upon whose novel the film was based, received the sole on-screen credit). "The version of 'Being There' that was shot was Jones's script," Dawson said. Ashby and Jones would eventually go their separate ways, but his demand as a top picture editor never abated. Jones also worked on Tony Scott's "Days of Thunder" (1990) and Harold Becker's "City Hall" (1996). In his capacity as a screenwriter, he penned episodes of Shelley Duvall's acclaimed series "Faerie Tale Theatre." In 2014, Jones received a Career Achievement Award from the American Cinema Editors. "Bobby is the kind of guy who could do just about anything," Zimmerman said. And Ashby's films lost a little of their magic in the absence of Jones, the man who was, for so long, his go-to editor. "I feel like he maybe thought it was a bit too easy — that it was kind of a bit of a cheat — to have Bob Jones as your editor," Dawson said. — Peter Tonguette My father, Robert C. Jones, passed away at home on February 1, 2021 after a long battle with Lewy Body Dementia. He was 84. Bob was best known for his collab- orations as a film editor with Stanley Kramer, Arthur Hiller, Hal Ashby and Warren Beatty. He cut such films as "It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World", "Guess Who's Coming to Dinner," "Love Story," "The Last Detail," "Shampoo," "Heaven Can Wait" and "Bulworth" to name a few. He was also a screenwriter, winning an Oscar for "Coming Home" and worked uncredited on "Being There." He then became a professor at USC School of Cinematic Arts for 15 years. Relentlessly creative, he was also a cartoonist, a sculptor, children's book au- thor, star of his own "Grandpa Bob" video series, sports car enthusiast and restorer, a KEM mechanic back in the day, and a master Avid technician. He was happiest at home, when he could lose himself in a project without any imposed structure and expressed a childlike wonder at what he alone could accomplish. He injected humor into everything he approached. Never an in your face, try too hard, ham- it-up, imposing type humor, but rather the type that embodied his soul. He and his inner child lived together in a perpet- ual comedic state that was always gentle and truly genius. The man I most remember growing up was the writer part of him. He wrote at home in an old rustic shed that was far up a hill on our canyon property. That space was also a photographic darkroom that the two of us used together, built when I was a teenager, and probably intended to distract me from other more illicit activ- ities. He let me work in there for hours, encouraging me to experiment and make mistakes. He offered that same kind