David Saxon

David Saxon was an editor best known for his work on the classic 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, starring the late Gene Wilder. Saxon also worked on the films The Angry Breed, Two Is a Happy Number, and I Love My Wife, starring Elliott Gould.

Saxon also edited the 1976 telefilm Victory at Entebbe, which starred Linda Blair and Kirk Douglas, and earned Saxon an Emmy nomination. The movie, about terrorists hijacking an Air France plane, was nominated for four Emmy Awards in all.

The editor worked extensively in television, particularly documentary productions including series Biography and Untamed Frontier, and specials including The Great White Shark, Lonely Lord of the Sea; D-Day June 6, 1944; Hollywood: The Great Stars; Making of the President 1968; Whatever Happened to Lori Jean Lloyd; and Cousteau’s Rediscovery of the World II.

Saxon also worked on several episodes of National Geographic Specials, including “Bushmen of the Kalahari,” “The Big Cats,” and “Monkeys, Apes & Man.” Additionally, he contributed to the series Hill Street Blues, Hollywood and the Stars, and MacGyver as well as the telefilms Mysteries of the Great Pyramid, starring Omar Sharif; Baby Comes Home; Sparkling Cyanide; When We Were Young; and Onassis: The Richest Man in the World, starring Jane Seymour and Anthony Quinn.

Saxon died July 5, 2016, in Los Angeles. He was 89.