Harold F. Kress; Film Editor Won 2 Oscars

Harold F. Kress, Academy Award-winning film editor for both the 1962 Cinerama epic “How the West Was Won” and the 1974 disaster movie “The Towering Inferno,” has died at age 86.

Kress died Sept. 18 in Palm Desert.

Although he directed a few documentaries and B movies, Kress made his real mark as an editor, becoming one of the most respected in the industry. He spent 40 years with MGM Studios and Columbia Pictures and edited more than 50 major motion pictures.

His colleagues elected him to the board of the American Cinema Editors and to the presidency of the Motion Picture Editors Guild.

When Kress received the American Cinema Editors’ Lifetime Achievement Award in 1992, he reminded his counterparts of his early battle with studios for recognition.

“We wanted to get our names from the bottom of the crawl to the top, with the director, cinematographer and costume designer,” he said. And he achieved that.

The ACE also gave him its editing achievement award three decades earlier for “How the West Was Won,” starring Henry Fonda and John Wayne.

The handful of films directed by Kress included the westerns “The Painted Hills” in 1951, starring Lassie the collie, and “Apache War Smoke” in 1952, starring Gilbert Roland.

The Pittsburgh-born and UCLA-educated Kress had started editing far earlier, and that remained his strongest skill. His first credits appeared in 1939 with “These Glamour Girls,” starring Lana Turner and Anita Louise, and “It’s a Wonderful World,” with Claudette Colbert and James Stewart.

Among the films shaped by Kress’ editing were “Andy Hardy Meets Debutante,” “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde,” “Mrs. Miniver,” “Madame Curie,” “The Dragon Seed,” “The Yearling” and “East Side, West Side” in the 1940s, and “Rose Marie,” “Valley of the Kings,” “I’ll Cry Tomorrow,” “Teahouse of the August Moon,” “The Rack,” “Silk Stockings” and “Imitation General” in the 1950s.

In the 1960s, Kress’ output included “Home From the Hill,” “King of Kings,” his Oscar-winning “How the West Was Won” and “The Greatest Story Ever Told.” In the 1970s, he handled such films as “The Poseidon Adventure,” “The Iceman Cometh,” the Oscar-winner “The Towering Inferno,” “Viva Knievel!” and “The Swarm.”

Kress is survived by his wife of 64 years, Zelda; a son, Carl; a sister, Hilda Hirsch; and two grandchildren and one great-grandchild.