Mo Henry Worked On Every Movie You Love
Maureen “Mo” Henry is, unfortunately, no longer with us. The veteran cutter and an absolute greatness in the postproduction community died due to complications from liver failure at the age of 67 in Los Angeles. She spent half a century in Hollywood and most likely worked on most movies you love.
Leading Talent In Postproduction
Production and postproduction crews are equally important as the directors and stars of the movie. In fact, they might be even more important because they turn the actors’ performances and directors’ creative vision into something we all see on the silver screen, and without their effort, the world would be devoid of both cinematic and television releases associated with the era of physical film stock. And Mo Henry was one of the greatest there was.
Mo Henry Got Her Start Cutting Jaws
Negative cutters such as herself play a crucial role in the traditional film editing process that took place before digital editing became dominant. In short, their job was to precisely cut the original camera negatives to match various sequences of the movie—a job that required exceptional precision skills. With half a century in the business, Mo Henry worked on some of the most recognizable titles in cinematography, starting with Steven Spielberg’s Jaws— the first movie she cut.
Her Vast Portfolio
Mo Henry’s portfolio includes Ghost, Heat, Casino, Before Sunrise, From Dusk Till Dawn, The Fifth Element, Starship Troopers, The Big Lebowski, The Iron Giant, The Sixth Sense, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, Million Dollar Baby, Babel, The Blind Side, and Interstellar (2014). She is also credited with certain entries in the Matrix franchise and often referred to 2002’s Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets as the “most rewarding” project she worked on.
Mo Henry’s Family In Hollywood
She also recut Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now, which resulted in the expanded version of the movie, now known as Apocalypse Now: Redux. Mo Henry also worked on Orson Welles’ long-lost The Other Side of the Wind, which was finally released in 2018.
She often regarded postproduction, particularly cutting, as her family business, considering that many of her family members worked in Hollywood. Her family immigrated from Ireland when her aunt walked up and down Sunset Boulevard looking into different businesses and asking for applications.
Mo Henry Will Be Remembered As One Of Hollywood’s Greats
Mo Henry eventually got a job at Fox Studios in the early ’20s, where she became a negative cutter and then introduced Mo Henry’s dad and his brother to the industry. Her dad gave the job to Mo’s older cousins, and he eventually trained her as well, and that’s how she entered the business.
She left Hollywood for a brief time and tried her luck in real estate, but she returned to the movie industry and resumed her work at Universal Studios’ negative cutting department. Before long, she was hired by D. Bassett & Associates, which she ended up buying in 1992.
After buying D. Bassett & Associates, Mo Henry became more involved with filmmakers and the movies she was cutting. Survivors include her son Logan and her siblings Sue and Pat.
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
