Neil Travis

Not to be confused with Neal Travis.

Neil Travis
Born	Herbert Neil Travis October 12, 1936[1] Los Angeles, California
Died	March 28, 2012(2012-03-28) (aged 75) Arroyo Grande, California
Occupation	film editor

Herbert Neil Travis (October 12, 1936 – March 28, 2012) was an American film and television editor with about 28 feature film credits from 1970–2007.^[2][3] He is likely best known for editing the television miniseries Roots (1977) and the feature film Dances with Wolves (1990).

Travis was born in Los Angeles, California, and received a bachelor's degree in film and theater arts from the University of California, Los Angeles.^[4]

Travis won the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Film Editing In A Drama Series for the first part of the television miniseries Roots (1977), and he and James Heckert were nominated for the award for the second part as well. Travis won the Academy Award for Best Film Editing and the American Cinema Editors Eddie for the film Dances with Wolves (directed by Kevin Costner-1990). Travis had been selected as a member of the American Cinema Editors, and received the Career Achievement Award in 2010.^[3]

In 2010, Travis was interviewed about his career by Karen Herman for the Archive of American Television.^[5]

Filmography

Editor

Year	Film	Director	Notes	Ref.
1970	The Traveling Executioner	Jack Smight
1972	The Cowboys	Mark Rydell	Second collaboration with Mark Rydell
1978	Jaws 2	Jeannot Szwarc
1979	Hot Stuff	Dom DeLuise
1980	Die Laughing	Jeff Werner
	Nights at O'Rear's	Robert Mandel
	The Idolmaker	Taylor Hackford
1981	Nobody's Perfekt	Peter Bonerz
1983	Second Thoughts	Lawrence Turman
	Cujo	Lewis Teague
1984	The Philadelphia Experiment	Stewart Raffill
1985	Marie	Roger Donaldson	First collaboration with Roger Donaldson
1987	No Way Out		Second collaboration with Roger Donaldson
1988	Cocktail		Third collaboration with Roger Donaldson
1990	Dances with Wolves	Kevin Costner		[6]
1991	Deceived	Damian Harris
1992	Patriot Games	Phillip Noyce	First collaboration with Phillip Noyce
1993	Bopha!	Morgan Freeman
1994	Clear and Present Danger	Phillip Noyce	Second collaboration with Phillip Noyce
1995	Outbreak	Wolfgang Petersen
1996	Moll Flanders	Pen Densham
1997	The Edge	Lee Tamahori	First collaboration with Lee Tamahori
1998	Stepmom	Chris Columbus	First collaboration with Chris Columbus
1999	Bicentennial Man		Second collaboration with Chris Columbus
2001	Along Came a Spider	Lee Tamahori	Second collaboration with Lee Tamahori
2002	The Sum of All Fears	Phil Alden Robinson
2003	Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines	Jonathan Mostow
2007	Premonition	Mennan Yapo

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
1965	Billie	Don Weis	Assistant editor
1968	Hell in the Pacific	John Boorman
1969	The Reivers	Mark Rydell	Associate film editor	First collaboration with Mark Rydell
2004	I, Robot	Alex Proyas	Additional editing

TV movies

Editor

Year	Film	Director	Notes
1971	They Call It Murder	Walter Grauman
1972	Climb an Angry Mountain	Leonard Horn
1973	The Bait
1974	Men of the Dragon	Harry Falk
1976	The Dark Side of Innocence	Jerry Thorpe
1977	Snowbeast	Herb Wallerstein	Uncredited
	Alexander: The Other Side of Dawn	John Erman
1985	The Atlanta Child Murders
1988	Hot Paint	Sheldon Larry
1989	Shannon's Deal	Lewis Teague

TV pilots

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1975	Black Bart	Robert Butler

TV series

Editor

Year	Title	Notes
1973	Roll Out	6 episodes
1974−76	Harry O	15 episodes
1977	Roots	2 episodes
1979	Roots: The Next Generations
1984	The Master	1 episode
1985	The Atlanta Child Murders	2 episodes
1987	Out on a Limb	1 episode
2006	Brotherhood

Additional crew

Year	Title	Role	Notes
1966−67	Please Don't Eat the Daisies	Assistant to the producer	28 episodes

Writer

Year	Title	Notes
1967	Please Don't Eat the Daisies	1 episode

TV specials

Editor

Year	Title
2007	79th Academy Awards

Awards

Academy Awards 1991, USA

Award	Person
Academy Award for Editing 'Dances with Wolves'	Neil Travis

Primetime Emmy Awards 1977, USA

Award	Person
Outstanding Film Editing in a Drama Series 'Roots'	Neil Travis

American Cinema Editors 2010, USA

Award	Person
Career Achievement Award	Neil Travis

References

1. Travis' date of birth is from the California Birth Index.
2. "Film editor Neil Travis dies at 75". Variety. April 3, 2012.
3. Neil Travis at IMDb
4. "Board of Directors and Staff". San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. Archived from the original on 2010-10-22.
5. Travis, Neil (February 26, 2010). "Interview with Karen Herman". Archive of American Television. Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Foundation. Retrieved 2012-04-04. Videorecording of a 2-hour interview. No transcript posted; contact publisher for availability.
6. Schager, Nick (June 7, 2003). "Dances with Wolves". Slant.

Further reading

• Ohanian, Thomas A.; Phillips, Michael E. (2000). "Neil Travis, A.C.E. - film editor". Digital Filmmaking: The Changing Art and Craft of Making Motion Pictures. Focal Press. p. 173. ISBN 9780240804279. Interview with Travis about editing and the advent of digital filmmaking.
• Smithee, Alan. "Dances with Wolves". Media Matters. Essay on the film that notes its editing.
• "Passings: Neil Travis, Jack Ellena". The Los Angeles Times. April 7, 2012. Archived from the original on April 13, 2012. Obituary.