Don Hall was a legendary figure in the world of sound and post-production. He was born in Vallejo, California, raised in Berkeley, and is of Chinese ancestry. After graduating from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles as a film major, he was hired by Mercury International Pictures, an industrial films and commercials company, as a film editor/cinematographer. In 1952 the company unionized and Don joined as a sound editor. He remained a union member for the rest of his career.
Hall is credited on 93 films. One of his early feature credits is as supervising sound editor on Otto Preminger’s musical “Porgy and Bess.” He worked with George Roy Hill (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”), Robert Altman (“M*A*S*H”), Franklin J. Schaffner (“Patton”), and Mel Brooks (“Young Frankenstein.” ) Originally hired as a sound editor at Federal Television and Samuel Goldwyn Productions, Hall eventually became the head of the sound department at Twentieth Century Fox. He also was the postproduction supervisor at television production companies including Quinn Martin, Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and Aaron Spelling Productions.
In 1986, Walt Disney Studios brought him on as vice president of postproduction, and within four years he was promoted to head of editorial.
In addition to his British Academy Film Awards nominations, Hall won two Primetime Emmy Awards and was nominated for three more in the category Outstanding Sound Editing for his work on the television program Voyage to the Bottom of the Sea and the made-for-TV movies Tribes, Eleanor and Franklin and Standing Tall.
Following his retirement, Hall joined the faculty of the USC School of Cinematic Arts where he was a senior lecturer for 22 years.
He was a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Sound Branch where he served on its Board of Governors for 16 years.
Hall was a founding member of the Motion Picture Sound Editors, an honorary Sound organization, and in 2004 he was awarded their 2004 Career Achievement Award. Two years later, Hall was awarded the John A. Bonner Medal of Commendation by the Academy. And in 2011 he was a recipient of the 2011 Motion Picture Editors Guild’sFellowship & Service Award.
