Elliot Graham, the film editor whose work on “Milk” earned him an Oscar nomination and who went on to cut films including “Steve Jobs,” “Captain Marvel” and “No Time to Die,” died Saturday in Los Angeles. He was 50. The County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner confirmed his death was by suicide.
News of his passing came from “Milk” producer Dan Jinks, who wrote a tribute on Facebook early Monday. Jinks said the film would not have come together the way it did without Graham’s work and called him a sweet, kind and quirky man. He learned of Graham’s death over the weekend and asked that he rest in peace.
Graham was born in Claremont, California, on June 8, 1976. He broke into the industry in the early 2000s, earning his first editing credit on the 2001 thriller “The Last Minute” before moving into television with an episode of “House” in 2004. His career expanded into major studio filmmaking with 2006’s “Superman Returns,” followed two years later by “Milk,” Gus Van Sant’s biopic starring Sean Penn as gay rights leader Harvey Milk. The film collected eight Oscar nominations, with wins for Penn and screenwriter Dustin Lance Black; Graham’s editing nomination marked one of the high points of his career.
He reunited with Van Sant in 2011 on “Restless,” starring Mia Wasikowska, and built a résumé spanning genres over the following decade. His credits include Danny Boyle’s “Steve Jobs,” Aaron Sorkin’s “Molly’s Game,” Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s “Captain Marvel,” and the Daniel Craig-led Bond finale “No Time to Die,” for which he shared a BAFTA award with editor Tom Cross. He also produced and edited the FX limited series “Trust,” which dramatized the 1973 kidnapping of John Paul Getty III, and contributed additional editing to films including “X2: X-Men United,” “The Amazing Spider-Man 2” and “Beasts of No Nation.”
