Ian Crafford, the British film editor whose four-decade career spanned Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Never Say Never Again, Hope and Glory and Field of Dreams, has died at 82.
He passed away on July 22 at his home in Brazil after a long battle with cancer, his son Scott Crafford told The Hollywood Reporter.
Crafford’s editing credits also included Tommy Chong’s Still Smokin (1983), Frank Oz’s The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), and David Anspaugh’s The Game of Their Lives (2005), along with two collaborations with fellow British filmmaker Michael Apted, Class Action (1991) and Thunderheart (1992).
He worked with director John Boorman across three films, The Emerald Forest (1985), the Oscar Best Picture nominee Hope and Glory (1987), for which he earned a BAFTA nomination, and Where the Heart Is (2000).
Born June 11, 1944, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England, Crafford took a summer job at Elstree Studios at 17 and enjoyed it enough that he never went back to school.
He got his start as an assistant editor on Carol Reed’s The Running Man (1963) and Michael Anderson’s The Quiller Memorandum (1966), before moving into sound editing on films including Captain Apache, The Darwin Adventure, Fury and Steppenwolf through the early 1970s.
He handled sound effects on Monty Python and the Holy Grail in 1975, and, according to his son, was Sophia Loren’s preferred choice for ADR work specifically, “much to the chagrin of my mother,” Scott joked.
Crafford transitioned into picture editing with The Medusa Touch (1978), starring Richard Burton and Lee Remick, a film produced by legendary Lawrence of Arabia editor Anne V. Coates.
He went on to edit Irvin Kershner’s Never Say Never Again (1983), marking Sean Connery’s return to the role of James Bond, and Phil Alden Robinson’s Field of Dreams (1989), his second Oscar Best Picture nominee in three years.
Later credits included Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997) and Savior (1998), with his final credit coming on The Hot Potato in 2012.
Crafford moved to the United States in 1988 to work on Field of Dreams, but it was his time filming The Emerald Forest that led him to fall in love with Brazil, where he eventually settled and spent his retirement.
He is survived by his wife, Antonia, and his children, Scott, Roberta, Monyka and Paul.
