Robert L. Simpson

Biography

Robert Laughlin Simpson was an American film editor, born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1910 and died in 1977. Working mainly during Hollywood's studio era, he became one of the most prolific editors of his generation, with more than a hundred feature credits to his name.

He started at Paramount Pictures in 1935 and, before the decade ended, had joined 20th Century Fox, where he stayed for more than thirty-five years. Over a career spanning roughly fifty-five years he edited close to a hundred films, across genres as varied as social drama, musicals, comedy and westerns. He worked several times with George Seaton, including on Miracle on 34th Street, and also collaborated with John Ford, Sidney Lanfield and Walter Lang.

His only Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing came for The Grapes of Wrath. His legacy is that of a dependable craftsman whose name appears on much of Fox's output of his era.

Key films

• The Grapes of Wrath (1940): the editing work that earned him his Oscar nomination.
• Miracle on 34th Street (1947): a collaboration with George Seaton on a holiday classic.
• The King and I (1956): editing on one of Fox's most successful musicals.
• South Pacific (1958): another large-scale musical he cut for the studio.