Carol Littleton

Carol Sue Littleton, ACE (born October 23, 1942) is an American film editor. Her work includes Body Heat (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), The Big Chill (1983), Places in the Heart (1984), Silverado (1985), The Accidental Tourist (1988), and Wyatt Earp (1994). She won the Primetime Emmy Award for the ABC movie Tuesdays with Morrie (1999). In January 2024, she received an honorary Oscar for her work.

Carol Littleton was born in 1942 in Oklahoma City, but her family later moved to Miami in Northeastern Oklahoma, where she grew up. She attended the University of Oklahoma College of Arts & Sciences, obtaining her bachelor's degree in 1965 and her master's in 1970.

Her obsession with film editing started in France, when Littleton became acquainted with French New Wave cinema. During the 1970s, Carol Littleton owned a production company that made commercials. She moved into working as a film editor with director Karen Arthur on Legacy (1975). Other films were to follow, and Littleton received an Academy Award nomination for editing Steven Spielberg's E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982). Commencing with Body Heat (1981), Littleton had an extended collaboration with the director Lawrence Kasdan. Kasdan hired Littleton for Body Heat not only for her skill but specifically because she was a woman. He believed only a woman editor could bring the eroticism he wanted to the film. Of the 11 films that Kasdan has directed, Littleton edited nine.

In the late 1980s, Carol Littleton was elected to and served as the president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild. Littleton served as president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild from 1988 to 1991 and as vice president from 1994 to 2001, as well as from 2005 to 2007. Littleton has been elected as a member of the American Cinema Editors and has served as ACE vice president since 2019. She is also a current member of the board of governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (Film Editors Branch). Littleton is one of the editors that author Gabriella Oldham interviewed for her book First Cut: Conversations with Film Editors (1992).

Carol Littleton was married to cinematographer John Bailey from 1972 until his death in 2023.

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