Robert Parrish

Robert R Parrish born 4 January 1916 Columbus Georgia 4 December 1995 Southampton New York was an American actor film editor film director and writer He received an Academy Award for Film Editing for the 1947 film Body and Soul Parrish was the son of factory cashier Gordon R Parrish and Laura R Parrish In the mid1920s the family moved from Georgia to Los Angeles and Parrish and his sisters Beverly and Helen began obtaining work as actors soon thereafter Parrish made his film debut in the 1927 Our Gang short Olympic Games Their mother Laura R Parrish was an actress as well and appeared in a few films of the 1940s He appeared in the antiwar classic All Quiet on the Western Front 1930 and Charles Chaplins City Lights 1931 and in several films for John Ford Ford then enlisted him as an assistant editor in 1936 on Mary of Scotland and as a sound editor on Young Mr Lincoln 1939 Parrish worked as an assistant editor and sound editor on other Ford movies as Drums Along the Mohawk 1939 and The Grapes of Wrath 1940 Parrish and Ford were in the United States Navy during the Second World War and worked on documentary and training films including The Battle of Midway 1942 In 1947 he won an Oscar for his debut as a feature film editor on Robert Rossens high tempo boxing drama Body and Soul the award was shared with Francis Lyon Parrish was later nominated for another Rossen film the political drama All the Kings Men 1949 he shared the nomination with Al Clark Parrish went on to contribute his technical talents to a host of highly regarded films and made a promising directorial debut in 1951 with the gripping revenge melodrama Cry Danger His subsequent output met with varying success The Purple Plain 1954 was nominated for Best British film at the 8th British Academy Film Awards One of the most notorious of his films was the James Bond Parody Casino Royale 1967 in which he was one of the films five directors His last film on which he shared codirector credit with Bertrand Tavernier was Mississippi Blues 1983 Parrish wrote two memoirs Growing Up in Hollywood 1976 and its sequel Hollywood Doesnt Live Here Anymore 1988 Of the first Kevin Brownlow wrote His stories about these pictures were marvellous in themselves and he often came at them sideways so not only the punchline but the situation took you by surprise We all entreated him to write them down and in 1976 he did so producing one of the most enchanting and hilarious books about the picture business ever written It was called Growing Up in Hollywood and it ought to be reprinted in this centenary year Summing up Parrishs career Allen Grant Richards wrote Other than his excellent editing work and early directing Parrish may be most remembered as storyteller from his two books of Hollywood memoirs