George Folsey Jr, the veteran film editor and producer who worked closely with John Landis on movies including Animal House, The Blues Brothers, Coming to America and the ill-fated Twilight Zone: The Movie as well as the iconic music video for Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” has died. He was 85.
The news was confirmed Wednesday by his son, fellow editor Ryan Folsey, on social media.
Folsey Jr was the son of George Folsey, the 13-time Oscar-nominated cinematographer whose credits included Meet Me In St. Louis, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Executive Suite and The Balcony.
As an editor, Folsey Jr began his career cutting an episode of The Monkees TV series in 1967. One of his first feature jobs was 1973’s Black Caesar starring Fred Williamson, going on to edit several pics in that genre including by Arthur Marks.
That same year, Folsey Jr edited and was an executive producer on Schlock, a sci-fi horror comedy that marked the feature debut of a 21-year-old named John Landis. It started a collaboration that would eventually include editing Landis’ pics The Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), National Lampoon’s Animal House (1978), The Blues Brothers (1980) and the “Thriller” music video Landis directed for Michael Jackson, which became a worldwide phenomenon when it debuted in 1983.
Folsey also produced the Landis movies An American Werewolf In London (1981), Trading Places (1983) with Eddie Murphy, Spies Like Us (1985) and Three Amigos! (1986), as well as 1985’s Clue which Landis co-wrote. Fosley edited and produced the Landis-Murphy reteam Coming to America which hit theaters in 1988.
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Folsey Jr was an assistant producer on Twilight Zone: The Movie, on which a helicopter crashed during the filming of Landis’ segment of the anthology film in July 1982 in Santa Clarita, CA. The crash, later found by the National Transportation Safety Board to have been caused by explosives used in the scene detonating too close to the low-flying copter, killed actor Vic Morrow and child actors Renee Shin-Yi Chen and Myca Dinh Le.
Landis, Folsey Jr, the pilot, the production manager and and explosives expert were all acquitted of manslaughter charges in the subsequent trial.
Folsey Jr went on to edit pics including Shawn Levy’s Cheaper By the Dozen (2003) and The Pink Panther (2006), both starring Steve Martin; Eli Roth’s Hostel (2005) and its sequel Hostel II (2007); Paul Feig’s Unaccompanied Minors (2006); and Steve Pink’s Hot Tub Time Machine (2010). His producing credits included Peter Bogdanovich’s A Thing Called Love (1993) and Grumpier Old Men (1995).
His last credited editing job per IMDb was this year’s indie drama Summer Rain.
The post George Folsey Jr Dies: ‘Animal House’, ‘Coming To America’, ‘Thriller’ Video Editor & Producer Was 85 appeared first on Deadline.
