Film Editor Sally Menke

Film editor Sally Menke, best known for her work with Quentin Tarantino, passed on September 27, 2010 at the age of 56. She had been hiking and her body appeared extremely dehydrated. No foul play was suspected.

Miss Menke was born in Mineola, New York on December 17, 1953. In 1978 she graduated from the Tisch School of Arts at New York University. She began her career as an editor with PBS and CBS Reports. She made the shift to feature films in 1983 with the film Cold Feet. Over the next few years she edited such films as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990) and The Search for Intelligent Life in the Universe (1992). She interviewed for Quentin Tarantino when he was looking for an editor who would work cheap on his film Reservoir Dogs (1992). Not only did Mr. Tarantino hire Sally Menke, but she would work on nearly every one of his films.

Sally Menke would go onto direct such films as Heaven and Earth (1993), Who Do You Think You're Fooling (1994), Pulp Fiction (1994), Mulholland Falls (1996), Nightwatch (1997), Jackie Brown (1997), All the Pretty Horses (2000), D.C. Smalls (2001), Daddy and Them (2001), Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003), Kill Bill Vol. 2 (2004), Grindhouse (2007--the segment "Death Proof"), Inglourious Basterds (2009), and Peakcock (2010). She was nominated for Oscars for Pulp Fiction and Inglourious Basterds.