Sam O'Steen

Editor

November 6, 1923 (76 years)

† October 11, 2000

St. Francis, Arkansas, USA

Biography

Sam O'Steen was an American film editor and director, renowned for his collaborations with director Mike Nichols. His editing work on films like The Graduate (1967), Rosemary's Baby (1968), and Chinatown (1974) earned him critical acclaim and multiple award nominations. O'Steen's precise editing style significantly influenced the pacing and narrative structure of these classic films. He also directed several television movies, including Queen of the Stardust Ballroom (1975), showcasing his vers…

Filmography

7.6

The Graduate

A disillusioned college graduate finds himself torn between his older lover and her daughter.

7.9

Chinatown

Private eye Jake Gittes lives off of the murky moral climate of sunbaked, pre-World War II Southern California. Hired by a beautiful socialite to investigate her husband's extra-marital affair, Gittes is swept into a maelstrom of double dealings and deadly deceits, uncovering a web of personal and political scandals that come crashing together.

7.8

Rosemary's Baby

A young couple, Rosemary and Guy, moves into an infamous New York apartment building, known by frightening legends and mysterious events, with the purpose of starting a family.

6.6

Working Girl

When a secretary's idea is stolen by her boss, she takes a risky chance to reclaim it by impersonating him and running the project from his position.

7.7

Cool Hand Luke

When petty criminal Luke Jackson is sentenced to two years in a Florida prison farm, he doesn't play by the rules of either the sadistic warden or the yard's resident heavy, Dragline, who ends up admiring the new guy's unbreakable will. Luke's bravado, even in the face of repeated stints in the prison's dreaded solitary confinement cell, "the box," make him a rebel hero to his fellow convicts and a thorn in the side of the prison officers.

6.7

Frantic

The wife of an American doctor suddenly vanishes in Paris. To find her, he navigates a puzzling web of language, locale, laissez-faire cops, triplicate-form filling bureaucrats and a defiant, mysterious waif who knows more than she tells.

6.7

Catch-22

A WWII military pilot makes a valiant effort to be certified insane in order to be excused from flying missions. But there's a catch.

7.7

Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

A history professor and his wife entertain a young couple who are new to the university's faculty. As the drinks flow, secrets come to light, and the middle-aged couple unload onto their guests the full force of the bitterness, dysfunction, and animosity that defines their marriage.

6.6

Carnal Knowledge

Two lifelong friends navigate complex sexual encounters and emotional entanglements, wrestling with societal norms and personal desires.

6.1

Wolf

An aging publisher becomes a demon wolf and, with this newfound youthful vigor, fights to keep his job.

5.8

Amityville II: The Possession

Anthony and Dolores Montelli, along with their four children, move into their dream house in Amityville and are immediately plagued by a string of paranormal experiences. When the abusive Anthony wrongly places the blame on the children, Dolores recruits a local Catholic priest to exorcise the house.

6.0

Heartburn

She's a magazine writer who gives up her career for love and family. He's a playboy newspaper columnist who can't quite give up his old tricks. And if that combination doesn't give a relationship heartburn, nothing will.

6.9

Silkwood

Like most of the people in her town, Karen Silkwood works at the local nuclear plant producing highly radioactive plutonium. Exposed one day to a lethal dose of radiation, Karen faces the blank walls of corporate indifference and denial. As her illness increases, her protest grows louder and she becomes an obvious danger to the powers that be.

6.5

Regarding Henry

After being shot, a lawyer loses his memory and must relearn speech and mobility, but he has a loving family to support him.

7.2

Straight Time

After being released on parole, a burglar attempts to go straight, get a regular job, and just go by the rules. He soon finds himself back in jail at the hands of a power-hungry parole officer.

5.4

Consenting Adults

Richard and Priscilla Parker are an ordinary suburban couple whose lives are invaded and rocked by their hedonistic, secretive new neighbors, Eddy and Kay Otis.

7.0

Auntie Mame

Mame Dennis, a progressive and independent woman of the 1920s, is left to care for her nephew Patrick after his wealthy father dies. Conflict ensues when the executor of the father's estate objects to the aunt's lifestyle and tries to force her to send Patrick to prep school.

6.2

Biloxi Blues

A Jewish teenager sets three goals: lose his virginity, become a writer, and survive World War II.

6.6

Postcards from the Edge

A substance-addicted actress tries to look on the bright side even as she's forced to move back in with her mother to avoid unemployment.

6.3

Night Falls on Manhattan

A newly elected District attorney finds himself in the middle of a police corruption investigation that may involve his father and his partner.