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JOHN F. BURNETT MARCH 5, 1934–OCTOBER 24, 2024 As a veteran of Old Hollywood and a pioneer of New Hollywood, picture editor John F. Burnett, ACE straddled two worlds. Burnett, who died Oct. 24 at age 90, rose through the ranks of the editorial depart- ment at Warner Bros. where he served as the assistant editor on many of the studio's leading productions from the last decade of the Golden Age, including Billy Wilder's "The Spirit of St. Louis" (1957), Mervyn LeRoy's "Gypsy" (1962), and George Cukor's "My Fair Lady" (1964). Yet by the time the longtime studio employee earned the privilege to edit films himself in the late 1960s, the movie b u s i n e s s h a d m o v e d o n . L a r g e - s c a l e musicals, star-driven vehicles, and Produc- tion Code-controlled scripts were on their way out, but the editor adapted with the times. Burnett edited several of the signature films of the adventuresome N e w H o l l y w o o d e ra , i n c l u d i n g S y d n e y P o l l a c k 's " T h e W a y W e W e r e " ( 1 9 7 3 ) , H e r b e r t R o ss 's " Th e Goodbye Girl" (1977), and Norman Jewison's "And Justice for All" (1979). Along the way, he helped bring several of his mentors from the old days into the new times: Bur- nett edited Blake Edwards's meditative, melancholy Western "Wild Rovers" (1971), starring William Holden, Ryan O'Neal, and Karl Malden, and George Cukor's final film, the superb romantic comedy-drama "Rich and Famous" (1981), starring Jacqueline Bisset and Candice Bergen. No matter the genre or epoch, Burnett was a master of his craft. "He was so fast," said his son, camera operator, cinematographer, and producer John Earl Burnett. "He would be in first cut the day after they finished shooting. He would have his assistant make a black-and- white dupe of his first cut, and then after they finished, he would have it for reference to see what had changed. It was so funny—it would end up almost back where he had it." In his life outside of the cutting room, Burnett also contained multitudes: He was at once a trail-blazing president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild (1975-76) and a modest, unassuming man who was as comfortable working on his 20-acre ranch in California as he was serving the industry where he had established his name. No matter how Burnett is defined, how- ever, his death represents the end of one of the most notable careers in postproduction. "He would take what a director gave him—and Cukor gave him thousands and thousands of feet a day because he did everything from the top—and he just had this way of putting it together," John Earl Burnett said. One of two sons born to Gilbert and Clara Burnett in Kansas City, Missouri, John F. Burnett only briefly made his home in the Great Plains. Drawn by the promise of California, Gilbert and family pulled up stakes to Burbank and eventually became an engineer at the Lockheed Corporation. At John Burroughs High School in Burbank, John stood out as a track athlete and a light opera singer. "The problem was, that wasn't fashionable at the time," Burnett said of his vanquished musical ambitions in an interview with CineMontage in 2012. "I would have done much better if I was twangin' with a guitar! The USO didn't want to hear me sing 'Figaro' from 'The Barber of Seville'!" During his youth, he nurtured a love for horses and roping that would stay with him all his life. The Burnetts' proximity to the movie business provided an alternate career path: With his family's home located about two miles from Warner Bros., his mother sug- gested he seek employment there upon his graduation from high school. "Jack Warner d i d n' t h a v e m u c h o f a f o r m a l e d u c a t i o n and wasn't that fond of college graduates," Burnett told CineMon- t a g e . " H e w a n t e d people to come through the ranks." Burnett be- gan as a messenger on the lot, and, following his service in the Army during the Korean War from 1952 to 1954, re- turned as an apprentice and then an assistant e d i to r — t h e ra n k s o f which had been deplet- ed during the war when many assistants became editors. His first film as an assistant editor was "The Spirit of St. Louis," edited by Arthur P. Schmidt. The following decade, Burnett received an early opportunity courtesy of his later collaborator George Cukor. During the mak- ing of Cukor's 1962 drama "The Chapman Report," editor Robert L. Simpson, ACE declined the director's request to work on weekends. "And so nobody was there but poor John!" Burnett recalled in an inter- view with CinemaEditor in 2008. "I didn't have a lot of experience editing at that time, but I came in and worked with George. And he didn't forget the loyalty of me coming in 52 C I N E M O N T A G E I N M E M O R I A M