Elliot Graham, Oscar-Nominated Film Editor on ‘Milk,’ Dies at 50

Elliot Graham Joe Maher/Getty Images

Elliot Graham, the film editor who received an Oscar nomination for Milk and cut films including Steve Jobs, Captain Marvel and No Time to Die, has died. He was 50.

Graham died by suicide Saturday in Los Angeles, according to the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner.

The biopic Milk (2008), directed by Gus Van Sant and written by Dustin Lance Black, starred Sean Penn as Harvey Milk, the first openly gay man to be elected to public office in California. The film was nominated for eight Oscars including best picture and won for best actor and original screenplay.

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On Facebook, Oscar-nominated Milk producer Dan Jinks wrote that his movie “wouldn’t have come together in the way it did without [his] amazing work.”

He then reunited with Van Sant on the romantic drama Restless (2011), starring Mia Wasikowska.

Graham won a BAFTA award (shared with Tom Cross) for editing the James Bond film No Time to Die (2021), directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga in what would be the film editor’s final credit.

He also produced and served as film editor on the 2018 FX series Trust, about the 1973 kidnapping of teenager John Paul Getty III.

Born on June 8, 1976, in Claremont, California, Graham got his first credit for editing the thriller The Last Minute (2001), directed by Stephen Norrington. Next, he handled additional editing chores on X2: X-Men United (2003), then worked again for director Bryan Singer as film editor on Superman Returns (2006).

In addition to Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs (2015), starring Michael Fassbender, and Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck’s Captain Marvel (2019), starring Brie Larson, Graham served as film editor on Bill Paxton’s The Greatest Game Ever Played (2005), Robert Luketic’s 21 (2008), Stephen Daldry’s Trash (2014) and Aaron Sorkin’s Molly’s Game (2017).

He also did additional editing on films including The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014), I Am Michael (2015) and Beasts of No Nation (2015).