Richard Halsey was born to be a film editor. While in junior high
school at Bancroft Jr High, they needed someone to run the projectors
for different classes so he volunteered in order to get out of class, so
started his first experience with film. He was also in the orchestra
with Ricky Nelson. Ricky played clarinet and Richard played oboe - not
very well.
Richard attended Hollywood High school with John Phillip Law, Salley
Kellerman, Mike Farrell,and Yvette Mimieux. After high
school Richard got a job at Warner Brothers mail dept and then moved
into the music editing dept, and then got a job at 20th Century Fox music
editorial with Ken Hall and a lot of great editors.
Richard was then drafted into the army and spent 21 months and 16 days
there, getting out early to go to College. That did not last
long because he got a job at 20th Century Fox in the editorial dept during
summer break and started work on Peyton Place with Editor George
Nicholson, who taught him the basics of film editing. Once you learn
that the rest is up to your own personal creativity.
Richard then became an editor on Peyton Place at the age of 28 and
moved into feature editing, winning the Oscar for Rocky at the age of
36. Some 60 pictures later he continues to live in the Hollywood Hills
and edit films. He is married to Editor Colleen Halsey and has two
beautiful daughters still at home, to be continued....