Sound editor Don Hall, MPSE had a golden ear. Over the course of a strikingly diverse and exceptionally long career, Hall shaped the soundscapes to films ranging from “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969) to “Young Frankenstein” (1974) to “Single White Female” (1992). He oversaw the hectic overlapping dialogue of “M*A*S*H” (1970), the crisp monologues delivered by the titular World War II hero of “Patton” (1970), and the authentic urban ambience of “The French Connection” (1971).
Hall, who died on March 12 at age 96, heard what a project needed and what its director wanted.
“He liked to go to dailies and listen to what the director had to say because it gave him an insight on what was wanted as far as sound was concerned,” said his widow, Teddy, who was Teddy Tang when she married Hall in 1951. “He was easygoing, very mellow, didn’t get flustered easily, and he was quite a creative mind.”
His colleagues describe their friend as a uniquely talented and resourceful sound editor and a generous person.
“He was fun and interesting,” said veteran picture editor Don Zimmerman, ACE who worked with Hall on pictures ranging from 1983’s “Staying Alive” to 1995’s “A Walk in the Clouds.” “I’ve worked with him since the ’60s. . . . He had good taste and follow-through — and he was funny.”
Emmy-nominated and Golden Reel Award-winning ADR editor Bobbi Banks, MPSE said in a statement to CineMontage, “Don Hall encouraged me at a very pivotal time in my career. He was a kind soul, a mentor to many, and a continual voice of wisdom.”
The son of a father who emigrated from China to the United States and a mother born in the U.S., Hall was born in Vallejo, California and raised in Berkeley. Although his family ran a restaurant, Hall displayed a creative streak early in life. “He was always interested in photography,” Teddy Hall said. “He graduated from high school six months early so he could get a start on some kind of a career. He took pictures of different houses and sold them to realtors. That was quite innovative at the time.”
After a 22-month stint in the Marine Corps, Hall attended ArtCenter College of Design in Los Angeles. Initially intending to parlay his photographic prowess into a career as a cinematographer, Hall found employment at Mercury International Pictures, a company that churned out industrial films and commercials. “But then Mercury had to unionize,” said Teddy Hall. “At that time, it was very difficult to get into one of the guilds if you didn’t know someone or have someone in the family who was already a member. There were openings in the cinematographers union and also in the Editors Guild, but he chose the Editors Guild because he thought he may have more opportunities there than as a cinematographer.”
Practical considerations also played a role in Hall’s decision to focus on sound editing, which did not require as lengthy a period of apprenticeship or assistantship as did picture editing at the time. “Because I came from a company that was unionized, the Guild allowed me to move to sound in a shorter time,” Hall said in an interview with CineMontage in 2011, when he received the much-coveted Fellowship and Service Award from the Motion Picture Editors Guild.
His career took him from being a sound editor at Federal Television and Samuel Goldwyn Productions to eventually becoming the head of the sound department at Twentieth Century Fox. Along the way, Hall found himself working closely with some of the leading filmmakers of the era, including George Roy Hill (“Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”), Robert Altman (“M*A*S*H”), Franklin J. Schaffner (“Patton”), and perhaps an unlikely favorite: the irascible but brilliant Otto Preminger, for whom Hall worked on films including the musical “Porgy and Bess” (1959), the courtroom classic “Anatomy of a Murder” (1959), and the World War II masterpiece “In Harm’s Way” (1965).
“Otto did take his sound editor with him when he was filming the picture, and that did not happen very often in Hollywood,” Teddy Hall said. “Otto was so good to us. That last picture Don did with Otto was ‘In Harm’s Way.’ Back in the day, it was feast or famine. You either were working or there was always a downtime in the spring where you had to kind of tighten your budget and get yourself over the three months when production would begin again. It was a wonderful experience because Otto flew the whole family over to Hawaii, and instead of giving Don above scale, he gave me this allowance. It made it a very nice vacation.”
While maintaining his involvement in feature films as a sound editor, Hall also advanced to the position of postproduction supervisor at television production companies including Quinn Martin, Spelling-Goldberg Productions, and Aaron Spelling Productions. “I first worked as a postproduction supervisor on ‘The Love Boat’ — something I had not done before — overseeing all elements of sound and picture in postproduction,” Hall told CineMontage in 2011. “TV in those days was more leisurely than it is today. We had maybe three weeks to complete a one-hour program. But we tried to keep the quality as high as we could; we just treated it like a film mini-feature.”
In 1986, Walt Disney Studios brought on Hall as vice president of postproduction, and within four years, the company had promoted him to head of editorial. “That was basically an executive position — a ‘suit,’ if you will,” Hall said.
Having attained success both in the cutting room and the executive suite, Hall was not done yet. Following his retirement from work in motion pictures and television, Hall took on the role of senior lecturer at the USC School of Cinematic Arts. “When he retired from motion pictures and had the chance to go to USC, it gave him another way to give back,” Teddy Hall said. “It was really a fluke that he got there. He had a friend, Jim Nelson, who was asked by USC to teach a class there. Jim, being very humble, said he didn’t think he could do it, but he called on Don. He said, ‘Go down there — there’s a position to teach a class.’ I know Don was a little hesitant at first, but he went down and taught that first year and just absolutely loved it. I think he ended up with 22 years down at USC.”
Hall also relished his membership in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and served on its Board of Governors for 16 years. “We used to go to the Academy’s [Samuel] Goldwyn Theater every weekend and see maybe three or four movies,” Teddy Hall said. “They showed two on Saturday and two on Sunday back in the day, and we had the best time seeing a lot of movies.” In 2006, he was awarded the Academy’s John Bonner Medal of Commendation.
Reflecting on his accomplishments to CineMontage in 2011, Hall said with typical modesty: “I have many to thank for the successes I have enjoyed during my long career, from supporters at the beginning to each and every person who has worked beside me. Ours is a collaborative business; the work is only as good as those who surround you.”
In addition to his wife, Don Hall is survived by their son, two grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.
—Peter Tonguette
