Oscars Pay Tribute to Mineola-Born Editor

It is said that an actor’s performance is never truly made until the editing room.

Those up late Sunday night to see “The King’s Speech” take home the Oscar for Best Picture of the Year may have also caught a glimpse of Sally Menke, to whom the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences also paid tribute.

Menke didn’t walk away with an Oscar statuette last night, indeed she was only fleetingly mentioned as part of the annual tribute to those members of the Academy who had been lost over the previous 12 months, memorialized in a photograph as large as the silver screen onto which her movies were projected in theaters across the country and the world while Celine Dion sang Nat King Cole’s “Smile.”

Born in Mineola in 1953, Menke accumulated more than 20 film credits to her name including numerous collaborations with Quentin Tarantino, editing all of the director’s films from “Reservoir Dogs” to “Inglorious Bastards,” including the “Kill Bill” films. She received Oscar nominations in the field of film editing for her work on “Pulp Fiction” and “Inglorious Bastards.”

Other films on Menke’s resume included 1990’s “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” Oliver Stone’s “Heaven & Earth” and the 1996 Nick Nolte film “Mulholland Falls.”

According to a New York Times obituary, Menke had been hiking in Griffith Park in Los Angeles on the morning of Sept. 27, 2010, when the temperature had reportedly reached 113 degrees. Her body was found in a section of the park known as Brosnon Canyon, known for hills and ravines. There were no signs of foul play.

Menke was survived by her husband, Dean Parisot, son Lucas, daughter Isabella and sister Sue Mason.