# Joel Cox

Joel Cox (born April 2, 1942) is an American film editor. He is best known for collaborating with Clint Eastwood in 33 films.

## Life and career

Cox has been working in film since appearing as a baby in Random Harvest (1942). He started in the mailroom at Warner Bros. in 1961. Rudi Fehr, a well-known editor and executive at Warner Bros., made Cox an apprentice editor about 3 years later. As was common in the era, Cox worked as an uncredited assistant for several years. His first credit as an assistant editor was for The Rain People, which was directed by Francis Ford Coppola and edited by Barry Malkin. His first credit as the editor was for Farewell, My Lovely (1975), which was directed by Dick Richards and co-edited by the veteran editor Walter A. Thompson. Cox had just finished working as Thompson's assistant on Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins (1975), which was also directed by Richards. Cox worked on two more of Richards' films, March or Die (1977 - as assistant editor) and Death Valley (1982).
Cox has had a notable collaboration with Clint Eastwood that commenced with the 1976 film The Outlaw Josey Wales, for which Cox was Ferris Webster's assistant. Cox and Webster were co-editors on The Gauntlet (1977) and on several more of Eastwood's subsequent films. Starting with Sudden Impact (1983), Cox became Eastwood's principal editor. Cox has been quoted as saying that, over their 30-year partnership, Eastwood has re-cut only a single scene that Cox put together. Gary D. Roach, who worked as Cox's assistant from the mid-1990s, became Cox's co-editor on Eastwood's films with Letters from Iwo Jima (2006). Cox's long streak editing each of Eastwood's films ended with Sully, which was edited by another of his former assistants, Blu Murray.
In addition to his career in the film industry, since 2000 Cox and his family have owned and managed a vineyard and winery near Paso Robles, California.
Cox won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Unforgiven. He has been elected as a member of the American Cinema Editors. On November 25, 2008, Clint Eastwood presented Cox the first Ignacy Paderewski Lifetime Achievement Award, which is named in honor of the piano virtuoso who called Paso Robles home, at the first Paso Robles Digital Film Festival. He received a nomination for the 2009 BAFTA Award for Best Editing for Changeling and for the 2015 Academy Award for Best Film Editing for American Sniper.

## Filmography

The 2008 Paso Robles Digital Film Festival provides a full filmography of Joel Cox as part of his Lifetime Achievement Award.

### Editor

| Year | Film | Director | Notes |
| 2024 | Juror No. 2 | Clint Eastwood | with David S. Cox |
| 2021 | Cry Macho | Clint Eastwood | with David S. Cox |
| 2019 | Richard Jewell | Clint Eastwood | |
| 2018 | The Mule | Clint Eastwood | |
| 2018 | Den of Thieves | Christian Gudegast | with David S. Cox, Nathan Godley |
| 2017 | All Eyez on Me | Benny Boom | |
| 2014 | American Sniper | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2014 | Jersey Boys | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2013 | Prisoners | Denis Villeneuve | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2012 | Trouble with the Curve | Robert Lorenz | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2011 | J. Edgar | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2010 | Hereafter | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2009 | Invictus | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2008 | Gran Torino | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2008 | Changeling | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2007 | American Masters Tony Bennett: The Music Never Ends | Bruce Ricker | (TV) Clint Eastwood Producer |
| 2006 | Letters from Iwo Jima | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach |
| 2006 | Flags of Our Fathers | Clint Eastwood | with Gary D. Roach. |
| 2005 | Budd Boetticher: A Man Can Do That | Bruce Ricker | (TV) |
| 2004 | Million Dollar Baby | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Frankie Dunn |
| 2003 | The Blues: Piano Blues | Clint Eastwood | |
| 2003 | Mystic River | Clint Eastwood | Original Music by Clint Eastwood |
| 2002 | Blood Work | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Terry McCaleb |
| 2000 | Space Cowboys | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Frank Corvin |
| 1999 | True Crime | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Steve Everett |
| 1997 | Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil | Clint Eastwood | |
| 1997 | Absolute Power | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Luther Whitney |
| 1997 | Eastwood After Hours: Live at Carnegie Hall | Bruce Ricker | (TV) |
| 1995 | The Stars Fell on Henrietta | James Keach | |
| 1995 | The Bridges of Madison County | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Robert Kincaid |
| 1993 | A Perfect World | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Chief Red Garnett |
| 1992 | Unforgiven | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as William 'Bill' Munny Won the 1992 Academy Award for Best Film Editing |
| 1990 | The Rookie | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Nick Pulovski |
| 1990 | White Hunter Black Heart | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as John Wilson |
| 1989 | Pink Cadillac | Buddy Van Horn | Clint Eastwood as Tommy Nowak |
| 1988 | Bird | Clint Eastwood | |
| 1988 | The Dead Pool | Buddy Van Horn | Supervising editor; Eastwood as Insp. 'Dirty' Harry Callahan |
| 1986 | Heartbreak Ridge | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Gunnery Sgt. Tom 'Gunny' Highway |
| 1986 | Ratboy | Sondra Locke | |
| 1985 | Pale Rider | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Preacher |
| 1984 | Tightrope | Richard Tuggle | Clint Eastwood as Capt. Wes Block |
| 1983 | Sudden Impact | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Harry Callahan |
| 1982 | Honkytonk Man | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Red Stovall; with Ferris Webster and Michael Kelly. |
| 1982 | Death Valley | Dick Richards | |
| 1980 | Bronco Billy | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Bronco Billy McCoy; with Ferris Webster. |
| 1978 | Every Which Way but Loose | James Fargo | Clint Eastwood as Philo Beddoe; with Ferris Webster. |
| 1977 | The Gauntlet | Clint Eastwood | Clint Eastwood as Ben Shockley; with Ferris Webster. |
| 1976 | The Enforcer | James Fargo | Clint Eastwood as Insp. 'Dirty' Harry Callahan; with Ferris Webster. |
| 1975 | Farewell, My Lovely | Dick Richards | co-edited with Walter Thompson |

### Assistant editor

| Year | Film | Director | Job | Notes |
| 1979 | Escape from Alcatraz | Don Siegel | assistant editor | Eastwood as Frank Morris; edited by Ferris Webster. |
| 1977 | March or Die | Dick Richards | assistant editor | |
| 1976 | The Outlaw Josey Wales | Clint Eastwood | assistant editor | Eastwood as Josey Wales; edited by Ferris Webster |
| 1975 | Rafferty and the Gold Dust Twins | Dick Richards | assistant editor | Edited by Walter Thompson |
| 1974 | The Terminal Man | Mike Hodges | assistant editor | Edited by Robert L. Wolfe |
| 1973 | The All-American Boy | Charles Eastman | assistant editor | Eastman's only film as director. |
| 1973 | Cleopatra Jones | Jack Starrett | assistant editor | |
| 1969 | The Rain People | Francis Ford Coppola | assistant editor | Edited by Barry Malkin |
| 1969 | The Wild Bunch | Sam Peckinpah | assistant editor | uncredited |

### Sound department

| Year | Film | Director | Job | Notes |
| 1969 | The Learning Tree | Gordon Parks | sound assistant | |

### Self

| Year | Show | Episode | Notes |
| 2006 | HBO First Look | A Moment in Time... Flags of Our Fathers | |
| 2005 | Ben-Hur: The Epic That Changed Cinema | | Video |
| 2002 | All on Accounta Pullin' a Trigger | | Video |
| 2000 | American Masters | Clint Eastwood: Out of the Shadows | |
| 1999 | Hell Hath No Fury: The Making of 'The Outlaw Josey Wales' | | Video |
| 1993 | The 65th Annual Academy Awards | | Winner: Best Film Editing |
| 1993 | Clint Eastwood: The Man from Malpaso | | |
| 1992 | Eastwood & Co.: Making 'Unforgiven' | | |

## Awards

| Year | Result | Award | Category | Recipient(s) | Notes |
| 2015 | Nominated | Oscar | Best Film Editing | American Sniper | Shared with Gary D. Roach |
| 2005 | Nominated | Oscar | Best Film Editing | Million Dollar Baby | |
| 1993 | Won | Oscar | Best Film Editing | Unforgiven | |
| 2005 | Nominated | Eddie | Edited Feature Film - Dramatic | Million Dollar Baby | |
| 2004 | Nominated | Eddie | Best Edited Feature Film - Dramatic | Mystic River | |
| 1993 | Won | Eddie | Best Edited Feature Film | Unforgiven | |
| 2006 | Won | Hollywood Film Award | Editor of the Year | | |
| 2006 | Nominated | Satellite Award | Best Film Editing | Flags of Our Fathers | |
| 2004 | Nominated | Golden Satellite Award | Best Film Editing | Mystic River | |
| 2009 | Nominated | British Academy of Film and Television Arts | BAFTA Award for Best Editing | Changeling | Shared with Gary D. Roach |