Elmo Williams was a picture editor, producer and director best known for his Oscar-winning work on the 1952 film High Noon.
The western starred Gary Cooper as Marshal Will Kane, a lawman who faces a returning enemy, and who receives no help from the townspeople he protected. The film was nominated for seven Oscars, winning four, for best actor, best original song and best scoring of a drama or comedy, in addition to Williams’ win for editing.
His work on High Noon is still lauded for its technical precision; the run time of the film is almost exactly the same as the run time of the story. The pacing helped to heighten the drama, as the Marshal and the townspeople anxiously awaited the return of the film’s villain on the noon train.
Williams was nominated for another Oscar two years later for editing the 1954 science-fiction film 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, starring Kirk Douglas and James Mason. The Disney adventure movie followed the story of a U.S. expedition sent to investigate mysterious ship sinkings.
He also worked as an editor on the films The Miracle of the Bells, starring Frank Sinatra; The Cowboy, a 1954 documentary which he also produced and directed; and uncredited work on the 1963 film Cleopatra, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. As a producer, he contributed to The Longest Day, starring John Wayne, Robert Ryan and Burton; The Blue Max, with George Peppard; Tora! Tora! Tora!, with Martin Balsam; and Man, Woman and Child, with Martin Sheen and Blythe Danner.
Additionally, Williams worked in television, as a director and associate producer on the short-lived 1959 series Tales of the Vikings. The series was produced by Kirk Douglas’s production company, Bryna Productions, and followed in the footsteps of the 1958 film The Vikings, which starred Douglas, Tony Curtis and Ernest Borgnine. The series version, which featured a new cast, was set in tenth-century Scandinavia and followed the adventures of Viking chief Firebeard and his two sons, Leif and Finn.
In 1990, Williams received a career achievement award from the American Cinema Editors. At the time of his death, he was the oldest living Oscar winner. He was 102.
Williams died November 25, 2015, in Brookings, Oregon.