Ian Crafford, the British film editor and soundman with credits including Monty Python and the Holy Grail, Never Say Never Again, Hope and Glory and Field of Dreams, has died. He was 82.
Crafford died July 22 at his home in Brazil after a long battle with cancer, his son Scott Crafford told The Hollywood Reporter.
Crafford cut Tommy Chong’s Still Smokin (1983), Frank Oz’s The Indian in the Cupboard (1995), David Anspaugh’s The Game of Their Lives (2005) and two features for fellow countryman Michael Apted, Class Action (1991) and Thunderheart (1992).
He also collaborated with British filmmaker John Boorman on three films, The Emerald Forest (1985), the Oscar best picture nominee Hope and Glory (1987) — for which he received a BAFTA nomination — and Where the Heart Is (2000).
Ian Charles Crafford was born on June 11, 1944, in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, England. He took a summer job at age 17 at Elstree Studios and enjoyed it so much he never returned to school.
He served as an assistant editor on Carol Reed’s The Running Man (1963) and Michael Anderson’s The Quiller Memorandum (1966)
He then worked as a sound editor on films including Captain Apache (1971), The Darwin Adventure (1972), Fury (1973) and Steppenwolf (1974), then handled sounds effects for Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975).
(When he was handling ADR (Automated Dialogue Replacement), Sophia Loren always requested him to handle that for her, “much to the chagrin of my mother,” his son quipped.)
One of Crafford’s first features as a film editor was The Medusa Touch (1978), starring Richard Burton and Lee Remick. (That feature was produced by legendary Lawrence of Arabia film editor Anne V. Coates.)
In addition to Irvin Kershner’s Never Say Never Again (1983) — Sean Connery’s comeback as James Bond — and Phil Alden Robinson’s Field of Dreams (1989) — Crafford’s second Oscar best picture nominee in three years — he edited such films as Snow White: A Tale of Terror (1997), Savior (1998) and, for his final credit, The Hot Potato (2012).
He moved to America in 1988 to work on Field of Dreams, and it was on Emerald Forest that he fell in love with Brazil, where he would retire.
Survivors include his wife, Antonia, and his children, Scott, Roberta, Monyka and Paul.
