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 1944The Spiral Staircase Till the End of Time 1946Crossfire So Well Remembered 1947Unknown Island 1948Champion 1949Home of the Brave 1949Tough Assignment Gun Crazy 1950The Men 1950Rocketship X-M Cyrano de Bergerac 1950Death of a Salesman 1951Eight Iron Men 1952The Happy Time 1952My Six Convicts 1952The Sniper 1952High Noon 1952The Four Poster 1952Combat Squad 1953The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. 1953The Juggler 1953The Member of the Wedding 1953Frontier Gun 1958The Alligator People 1959Five Gates to Hell 1959Here Come the Jets 1959The Rookie 1959Freckles 196013 Fighting Men 1960Young Jesse James 1960The Magic Sword 1962Walk on the Wild Side 1962Of Love and Desire 1963Batman The War Wagon The Secret Life of an American Wife 1968Hard Contract 1969Cover Me Babe 1970Big Jake 1971Ben 1972Walking Tall Framed 1975

Director