“You need to set the tone early on. If you give the audience a path, chances are they’re going to follow it.”
A native New Yorker born in 1943, Richard Marks was fortunate enough to begin his prolific editing career as a protégé of Dede Allen, whom he assisted on such Arthur Penn films as Alice’s Restaurant (1969) and Little Big Man (1970), and with whom he co-edited Sidney Lumet’s Serpico (1973). After cutting Francis Ford Coppola’s The Godfather: Part II (1974) with Barry Malkin and Peter Zinner, Marks received his first Academy Award nomination for his work as a member of the editing team on Coppola’s Apocalypse Now (1979).
Marks has edited all six features written and directed by James L. Brooks, and received three additional Oscar nominations for his work on Brooks’ Terms of Endearment (1983), Broadcast News (1987) and As Good as It Gets (1997). His other editor credits include Elia Kazan’s The Last Tycoon (1976), Herbert Ross’ Pennies From Heaven (1981), Cameron Crowe’s Say Anything... (1989), Warren Beatty’s Dick Tracy (1990) and the Nora Ephron comedies You’ve Got Mail (1998) and Julie & Julia (2009).
