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status: 1982's "Tootsie," starring Dustin Hoffman. The father-and-son editors were nominated for an Oscar for Best Film Edit- ing. "My dad became friends with Dustin Hoffman after that," Jeff said. "He really enjoyed working on that movie." F r e d r i c a n d W i l l i a m a l s o w o r k e d regularly for director Taylor Hackford, as o n "A g a i n s t A l l O d d s " (1984) starring Jeff Bridges in a remake of the film noir "Out of the Past," and for the Cold War drama "White N i g h t s " ( 1 9 8 5 ) s t a r r i n g Mikhail Baryshnikov and Gregory Hines. But Pollack was eager to work with the Steinkamps a g a i n , a n d t h e t w o d i d not disappoint. In collab- o r a t i o n w i t h P e m b r o k e J. H e r r i n g a n d S h e l d o n Kahn, ACE, the Steinkamps co-edited "Out of Africa" ( 1 9 8 5 ), t h e B e s t P i c t u re Oscar winner on which the four film editors shared an Oscar nomination. Other films Fredric and William edited for Pollack included "Havana" (1990) and "The Firm" (1993). "They would break up scenes according to how production was going and how much they were shoot- ing," Jeff said. "I remember hearing that Sydney had specific scenes he wanted my father to work on or my grandfather to work on. It was kind of fluid. Nothing was locked. "If something wasn't working with a scene, Sydney would just say, 'Fix it,'" Jeff said. "He wasn't a director who would hand- hold through a first edit. He wanted my dad and my grandfather to make a whole pass, to find on their own the rhythms and how scenes would work. Then Sydney's big thing would be to dive into performance." Sometimes, Steinkamp the elder would start a movie with Pollack while Steinkamp the younger was working on another movie. But by the time the younger was finished, he would get onto the Pollack movie. "They would call up my dad and say, 'All right, Sydney is never going to tell you he wants you to come back, but he wants you to come back,'" Jeff Steinkamp said. Fredric Steinkamp edited one last film for Pollack on his own — the 1995 remake of the Humphrey Bogart/Audrey Hepburn romantic comedy "Sabrina," this time star- ring Harrison Ford and Julia Ormond. After that, William moved into the solo chair. For Pollack, he edited "Random Hearts" (1999) starring Ford and Kristin Scott Thomas and also the director's final feature film, "The In- terpreter" (2005), starring Nicole Kidman and Sean Penn. Although William established himself as a solo editor both before and after his father's death in 2002, he never let go of the things he had learned from a lifetime in the business. "Even back in 1992, when we worked on 'Scent,' Bill would be con- sidered 'old school,'" Tronick said. "Bill carried the lessons and traditions that he'd learned and had guided him in his impressive approach to every scene he touched." Jeff said his father considered editing to be a kind of "second writ- ing." "The writer wrote the script, but sometimes when we're in the editing room, we're rewriting the story because it didn't translate on film the way everybody believed it would," he said. "His biggest thing was story. In every scene, you've got to find the story." Over the years, William earned a reputation for forthrightness. "He would never lie to a director," Jeff said. "If it didn't work, it didn't work, and he would tell him why and what they could do to fix it. I think that's why he ended up doing a lot of 'fix-it' movies — he came onto a lot of movies after they had started." Outside of his work with Pollack, Wi l l i a m wo r ke d to avo i d b e i n g pigeonholed. Whether on his own or in collaboration with his father, William edited everything from the teenage comedy "Adventures in Babysitting" (1987) to the Christ- mas-themed classic "Scrooged" (1988) to the John Grisham drama "A Time to Kill" (1996). He was also Oscar-nominated for the romantic drama "The Fabulous Baker Boys" (1989), which he edited solo. He jumped seamlessly from project to project. "He felt that if it's good editing, you'll never notice as you watch," Jeff said. William Steinkamp, who had battled cancer for two years prior to his death, is survived by his wife, Terri; their children, Jeff and Jennifer; and four grandchildren. ■ Peter Tonguette 46 C I N E M O N T A G E I N M E M O R I A M