Peter Zinner, 1919 - 2007.

Film editor Peter Zinner, who worked on the first two Godfather movies with director Francis Ford Coppola, has died in California aged 88.... Coppola paid tribute to Zinner's "great contribution" to his mob drama. Zinner went on to win an Academy Award for his work on The Deer Hunter in 1978, which also won best picture. Coppola told the Associated Press that the music which accompanied the film's final baptism sequence was Zinner's idea.

The BBC.

"Peter is definitely in the top rank of editors of two or three generations," said screenwriter-director Frank Pierson, whose A Star Is Born and four other movies Zinner edited.... Zinner considered "The Godfather" to be "the most classic movie" he ever worked on.

Dennis McLellan, Los Angeles Times.

Posted by dwhudson at November 17, 2007 2:00 PM