Barbara McLean

About

In the 1930s, '40s, and '50s, she served as the chief film editor at 20th Century Fox. Nominated for seven Academy Awards, she won the 1944 Oscar for Film Editing for her work on the Henry King-directed feature Wilson.

Before Fame

During her childhood years, she learned how to process film and also studied music. At the start of her editing career, she worked for Los Angeles' First National Studio and soon became an assistant at Twentieth Century Pictures, where she earned her first Academy Award nomination for her work on the 1935 movie version of Les Miserables.

Trivia

Throughout most of her career, she worked in close collaboration with studio executive Darryl F. Zanuck.

Family Life

The daughter of film lab owner Charles Pollut, she spent her youth in Palisades Park, New Jersey. Her first marriage -- to cameraman J. Gordon McLean -- began in the early 1920s and ended in divorce in the 1940s. Her second marriage, to cinematic director Robert D. Webb, lasted from 1951 until Webb's death in 1990.

Associated With

Though she most frequently collaborated with director Henry King, McLean also edited director Joseph Mankiewicz's popular film All About Eve (1950).