R.I.P. - Don Zimmerman

[Jeff Wexler]

Don Zimmerman, a veteran film editor who scored an Oscar nom for Coming Home and worked on dozens of other movies including Being There, The Prince of Tides, Night at the Museum and two Rocky sequels, died July 24 of acute myeloid leukemia at his Studio City home. He was 81.

 

 

I had not been in contact with Don for years, very sad to hear of his passing. On Facebook, of course, again continuing my love-hate with Facebook. Don was very much in the Hal Ashby group, I did a number of movies with him besides the Hal Ashby movies, he was a pleasure to work with, so mutually supportive and a real team player.  When he asked me if I would do the sequel to Saturday Night Fever I of course said yes, I would love work with him again. He said the Director was Sly Stone ("Saturday Night Fever II - Everyday People" ?). It wasn't until my first pre-production meeting that I realized it was Sly STALLONE, not Sly Stone! I did the movie and it was a kind  of a wild ride, Stallone never seemed comfortable directing. He was very competitive regarding another movie being made at the same time but he was very sure he had a winner with his movie, He called the other movie "Flushdance".