Harry W. Gerstad

Harry W. Gerstad (born Harry Donald Gerstad; June 11, 1909 – July 17, 2002) was an American film editor who sometimes directed films. The Academy Award-winning editor also worked on television. He edited as well as directed for the 1950s program Adventures of Superman. In the 1960s he worked for Bing Crosby Productions and Batjac Productions. Gerstad retired to Palm Springs, California in 1973 and lived there until his death in 2002.

Awards and nominations He won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing (the "Oscar") twice: for the boxing drama Champion in 1949 and for Fred Zinnemann's seminal Western High Noon in 1952. Elmo Williams, who was co-editor of High Noon, indicated in his autobiography that Gerstad's credit was a nominal one. At that time the editorial supervisor (Gerstad) was usually (and often contractually) given superior credit to subordinate editors (Williams), and one responsibility of Gerstad's position was selecting and hiring Williams, who only worked on this one Stanley Kramer production.

In 1997, Gerstad received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award.

Gerstad was honored with a Palm Springs Walk of Stars Golden Palm Star in 2003.

Filmography Editor Brazil (film editor – not credited) 1944 The Spiral Staircase (film editor) (1946) Till the End of Time (film editor) 1946 Crossfire (film editor) (1947) So Well Remembered (film editor) 1947 Unknown Island (film editor) 1948 Champion (film editor) 1949 Home of the Brave (film editor) 1949 Tough Assignment (film editor) (1949) Gun Crazy (film editor) 1950 The Men (film editor) 1950 Rocketship X-M (film editor) (1950) Cyrano de Bergerac (film editor) 1950 Death of a Salesman (editorial supervisor) 1951 Eight Iron Men (editorial supervisor) 1952 The Happy Time (editorial supervisor) 1952 My Six Convicts (editorial supervisor) 1952 The Sniper (editorial supervisor) 1952 High Noon (editorial supervisor) 1952 The Four Poster (editorial supervisor) 1952 Combat Squad (film editor) 1953 The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. (editorial supervisor) 1953 The Juggler (editorial supervisor) 1953 The Member of the Wedding (editorial supervisor) 1953 Frontier Gun (film editor) 1958 The Alligator People (supervising film editor) 1959 Five Gates to Hell (supervising editor) 1959 Here Come the Jets (supervising film editor) 1959 The Rookie (supervising film editor) 1959 Freckles (supervising film editor) 1960 13 Fighting Men (film editor) 1960 Young Jesse James (film editor) 1960 The Magic Sword (film editor) 1962 Walk on the Wild Side (film editor) 1962 Of Love and Desire (film editor) 1963 Batman (film editor) (1966) The War Wagon (film editor) (1967) The Secret Life of an American Wife (film editor) 1968 Hard Contract (film editor) 1969 Cover Me Babe (film editor) 1970 Big Jake (film editor) 1971 Ben (film editor) 1972 Walking Tall (film editor) (1973) Framed (film editor) 1975

Director 13 Fighting Men (director) (1960)