Margaret Booth

January 16, 1898 – October 28, 2002

Los Angeles, California, USA

Margaret Booth (January 16, 1898 – October 28, 2002) was an American film editor. Born in Los Angeles, she started her Hollywood career as a 'patcher', editing films by D. W. Griffith, around 1915. Her brother was actor Elmer Booth. Later she worked for Louis B. Mayer when he was an independent film producer. When Mayer merged with others to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer in 1924, she worked as a director's assistant with that company. She edited several films starring Greta Garbo, including Camille (1936). Booth later edited such diverse films as Mutiny on the Bounty (1935, for which she was nominated for an Academy Award). A few films associated with her are Wise Girls (1929), A Yank at Oxford (1938), The Way We Were (1973), The Sunshine Boys (1975), The Goodbye Girl (1977), The Cheap Detective (1978), and Seems Like Old Times (1980). She was supervising editor and associate producer on several films for producer Ray Stark, culminating with executive producer credit on The Slugger's Wife in 1985 when she was 87 years old. She received an Academy Honorary Award from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in 1978 for her work in film editing. She is the longest-lived person ever to have been given an Oscar. In 1983 she was awarded the Women in Film Crystal Award for outstanding women who, through their endurance and the excellence of their work, have helped to expand the role of women within the entertainment industry. In 1990, Booth was honoured with the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award. Margaret Booth died in 2002, aged 104, from complications of a stroke. She is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.