Jim Clark

Early life Clark was born in 1931, and grew up in Boston, Lincolnshire. He was educated at Oundle School in Northamptonshire and founded the Oundle Film Society in 1947.

Career Clark moved to London, and in 1951 began work as an assistant editor at Ealing Studios. Subsequently he worked as a freelance assistant editor on two films directed by Stanley Donen and edited by Jack Harris. When Harris declined the opportunity to work on Donen's subsequent film, Surprise Package (1960), Donen gave Clark the job. As Clark later wrote,

He received an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for the editing of The Killing Fields (1984, directed by Roland Joffé); he received a second BAFTA Award for editing The Mission (1986, Joffé). Clark was also nominated for BAFTA Awards for his editing of the films Marathon Man (1976, directed by John Schlesinger) and Vera Drake (2004, directed by Mike Leigh). In 2005, Clark received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award.

Responding to a question about the major influences on his editing, Clark said Looking back over many years, the American cinema of the 40s was very important to me, along with Hitchcock films and early British comedies with actors like Will Hay and George Formby. Music has also played a major role; it influences the rhythm of my editing. The pacing of a film and its dialogue have a lot to do with music, and the act of going from one shot to another has always fascinated me - when and how you do it, the reason for an edit. receiving warm reviews from The Guardian and The Observer.

Filmography As director The Christmas Tree (1966) Every Home Should Have One (1970) Rentadick (1972) Madhouse (1974)