Throughout the month of May, the Pan Pacific Asian Steering Committee will highlight Asian American members—past and present—celebrating their achievements and contributions.
We’ve all seen the work of this legendary film editor in the multiplex. Richard Franklin Chew was born in Los Angeles and is of Chinese ancestry. He served in the U.S. Navy and graduated from UCLA. After watching the film Nothing But a Man in 1964, he left Harvard Law School to pursue a film career, starting with camera and editing work on documentaries.
He eventually transitioned to editing feature films, serving as co-editor on Francis Ford Coppola’s The Conversation and on his Academy Award-winning work for Star Wars (1977) alongside Paul Hirsch and Marcia Lucas. He also won British Academy Awards (BAFTA) as co-editor on both The Conversation and Miloš Forman’s One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. His work on Shanghai Noon was nominated for Best Feature Comedy by American Cinema Editors.
He has worked with actor-directors such as Jack Nicholson, Tom Hanks, and Forest Whitaker. Other writer-directors he has collaborated with include Cameron Crowe, Paul Brickman, Bruce Joel Rubin, and Emilio Estevez.
In 2016, Chew received the Third Annual Andrew V. McLaglen Lifetime Achievement Award from the Friday Harbor Film Festival in Washington. In 2022, American Cinema Editors presented him with the ACE Career Achievement Award.
He is a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, the Motion Picture Editors Guild, and American Cinema Editors.
First union job: Editor on Goin’ South (1978) for Jack Nicholson.
I have heard that RC worked on the Woodstock movie.
Yes, Frank, I was one of the cameramen onstage shooting the bands for most of the weekend. Though the experience was exhilarating and unforgettable, my ears were ringing for a week afterwards.