Jim Clark

Who is Jim Clark?

Jim Clark is a British film editor and director.

Clark was born in 1931, and grew up in Boston, Lincolnshire. Clark moved to London, and in 1951 he began work as an assistant editor at the legendary Ealing Studios. Subsequently, Clark worked as a freelance assistant editor on two films directed by Stanley Donen and edited by Jack Harris. When Harris declined the opportunity to work on Donen's subsequent film, Surprise Package, Donen gave Clark the job. As Clark later wrote,

He received an Academy Award and a BAFTA Award for the editing of The Killing Fields; he received a second BAFTA Award for editing The Mission. Clark was also nominated for BAFTA Awards for his editing of the films Vera Drake and Marathon Man. In 2005, Clark received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award.

Responding to a question about the major influences on his editing, Clark said

As a director he was responsible for Rentadick and Madhouse starring Vincent Price.

Clark now lives in Kensington with his wife Laurence Méry-Clark, who is also a film and television editor. They married in 1961 and have three children. In 2011 Clark's autobiography Dream Repairman: Adventures in Film Editing was published, receiving warm reviews from The Guardian and The Observer.