Ferris Webster

Ferris Maynard Webster (April 29, 1912 – February 4, 1989) was an American film editor with approximately seventy-two film credits. He was nominated for Academy Awards for Best Film Editing for his work on Blackboard Jungle, The Manchurian Candidate (1962), and The Great Escape (1963).

Webster was raised in the state of Washington, Webster was an All-American at 880 yards for the USC Trojans track and field team, finishing 4th at the 1933 NCAA Track and Field Championships. He was trained as an editor at the MGM Studios, Webster edited the three films of director John Frankenheimer's "paranoia trilogy": The Manchurian Candidate (1962), Seven Days in May (1964), and Seconds (1966). Eder writes that The Manchurian Candidate was "the editor's magnum opus. The shooting, cutting, and intercutting of one extended brainwashing sequence, seen from multiple points-of-view, is still striking decades later, and the movie earned Webster his second Academy Award nomination." Frankenheimer cast Webster in his only appearance as a film actor, as Air Force Gen. Bernard "Barney" Rutkowski in Seven Days in May. Malpaso staffers believed Clint had been spoiled by Webster’s ability to piece together footage so that the sequence always made sense. Clint the actor was as notorious for doing as few camera takes (usually only a couple) as he was for not repeating his scripted dialogue -- and if they hadn't filmed with multiple cameras running (offering more footage to cutaway to), this time-consuming/unproductive process could wear down a film cutter. Around the time of The Enforcer (1976), Eastwood's (on-camera) anti-post-production idiosyncrasies supposedly became more, and more, time consuming for Webster.

Nevertheless, Webster reportedly had started out "liking" Clint enormously, had spent much of his career working exclusively for the star. He had even moved up near Burney, CA (where Clint purchased a "forever home," in late-1978) thinking he would edit Malpaso films for the rest of his life. ‘He died brokenhearted,’ according to Malpaso producer, Fritz Manes.

Additional credits include The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945), Lili (1953), Forbidden Planet (1956), Les Girls (1957), Divorce American Style (1967).

Selected filmography

+ Actor Year Film Director Role Notes1964 Seven Days in MayJohn FrankenheimerGen. Bernard 'Barney' Rutkowski

TV series