Harry W. Gerstad


Harry W. Gerstad 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 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 was usually given superior credit to subordinate editors, 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 1944
  • The Spiral Staircase
  • Till the End of Time 1946
  • Crossfire
  • So Well Remembered 1947
  • Unknown Island 1948
  • Champion 1949
  • Home of the Brave 1949
  • Tough Assignment
  • Gun Crazy 1950
  • The Men 1950
  • Rocketship X-M
  • Cyrano de Bergerac 1950
  • Death of a Salesman 1951
  • Eight Iron Men 1952
  • The Happy Time 1952
  • My Six Convicts 1952
  • The Sniper 1952
  • High Noon 1952
  • The Four Poster 1952
  • Combat Squad 1953
  • The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. 1953
  • The Juggler 1953
  • The Member of the Wedding 1953
  • Frontier Gun 1958
  • The Alligator People 1959
  • Five Gates to Hell 1959
  • Here Come the Jets 1959
  • The Rookie 1959
  • Freckles 1960
  • 13 Fighting Men 1960
  • Young Jesse James 1960
  • The Magic Sword 1962
  • Walk on the Wild Side 1962
  • Of Love and Desire 1963
  • Batman
  • The War Wagon
  • The Secret Life of an American Wife 1968
  • Hard Contract 1969
  • Cover Me Babe 1970
  • Big Jake 1971
  • Ben 1972
  • Walking Tall
  • Framed 1975

    Director

  • ''13 Fighting Men''