Robert Swink

---

title: "Robert Swink" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["people-from-rocky-ford,-colorado", "1918-births", "2000-deaths", "people-from-santa-maria,-california", "american-film-editors", "north-hollywood-high-school-alumni", "american-cinema-editors-career-achievement-award-winners"] description: "American film editor (1918–2000)" topic_path: "arts" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Swink" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary American film editor (1918–2000) ::

::data[format=table title="Infobox person"]

Field	Value
name	Robert Swink
birth_date
birth_place	Rocky Ford, Colorado, United States
death_date
death_place	Santa Maria, California, United States
occupation	Film editor
::

| name = Robert Swink | birth_date = | birth_place = Rocky Ford, Colorado, United States | death_date = | death_place = Santa Maria, California, United States | occupation = Film editor ::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Poster_-_Friendly_Persuasion_01.jpg" caption="Friendly Persuasion]]''."] ::

Robert Swink (June 3, 1918 – August 15, 2000) was an American film editor who edited nearly 60 feature films during a career that spanned 46 years.

Born in Rocky Ford, Colorado, Swink and his family moved to Hollywood in 1927. After graduating from North Hollywood High School in 1936, he joined RKO Pictures as an editing apprentice. During World War II, he edited training films for the Army Special Services. His first screen credit was the 1943 comedy short Double Up.

For the next five years, Swink edited mostly B movies until George Stevens hired him for I Remember Mama (1948). He edited several Westerns in 1950, and the following year was hired by William Wyler to work on Detective Story. It was the first of 11 projects on which the two men collaborated. Swink left RKO to join Wyler at Paramount in 1952, and his credits at the studio include Carrie (1952), Roman Holiday (1953), and The Desperate Hours (1955). Among his assistants in this era was Hal Ashby, who became a distinguished editor and director.

In 1964, Swink edited The Best Man for Franklin J. Schaffner. They worked together on four additional films, including Papillon (1973), Islands in the Stream (1977), The Boys from Brazil (1978), and Sphinx (1981). Swink came out of retirement to edit the 1989 film Welcome Home when Schaffner died right after completing principal photography on the project.

Swink worked as a second unit director on The Big Country (1958), The Collector (1965), How to Steal a Million (1966), The Only Game in Town (1970), and The Liberation of L.B. Jones (1970).

Swink was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Film Editing for Roman Holiday (1953), Funny Girl (1968), and The Boys from Brazil (1978). He received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award in 1993.

Swink died of a heart attack in Santa Maria, California.

Selected filmography

::data[format=table title="Editor"]

Year	Film	Director	Notes
1944	Passport to Destiny	Ray McCarey
Action in Arabia	Léonide Moguy
Heavenly Days	Howard Estabrook
1946	Step by Step	Phil Rosen
Criminal Court	Robert Wise	First collaboration with Robert Wise
1947	The Devil Thumbs a Ride	Felix E. Feist
The Long Night	Anatole Litvak
1948	I Remember Mama	George Stevens	First collaboration with George Stevens
1949	Riders of the Range	Lesley Selander	First collaboration with Lesley Selander
Adventure in Baltimore	Richard Wallace
Make Mine Laughs	Richard Fleischer	First collaboration with Richard Fleischer
1950	Dynamite Pass	Lew Landers
Storm over Wyoming	Lesley Selander	Second collaboration with Lesley Selander
Rider from Tucson	Third collaboration with Lesley Selander
Never a Dull Moment	George Marshall
Double Deal	Abby Berlin
1951	The Company She Keeps	John Cromwell
Detective Story	William Wyler	First collaboration with William Wyler
1952	The Captive City	Robert Wise	Second collaboration with Robert Wise
The Narrow Margin	Richard Fleischer	Second collaboration with Richard Fleischer
Carrie	William Wyler	Second collaboration with William Wyler
1953	Roman Holiday	Third collaboration with William Wyler
1954	Witness to Murder	Roy Rowland
1955	Crashout	Lewis R. Foster
The Desperate Hours	William Wyler	Fourth collaboration with William Wyler
1956	Friendly Persuasion	Fifth collaboration with William Wyler
1957	The Young Stranger	John Frankenheimer
1959	The Diary of Anne Frank	George Stevens	Second collaboration with George Stevens
1961	The Young Doctors	Phil Karlson
The Children's Hour	William Wyler	Seventh collaboration with William Wyler
1963	Captain Sindbad	Byron Haskin
1964	The Best Man	Franklin J. Schaffner	First collaboration with Franklin J. Schaffner
1965	The Collector	William Wyler	Eighth collaboration with William Wyler
1966	How to Steal a Million	Ninth collaboration with William Wyler
1967	The Flim-Flam Man	Irvin Kershner
1968	Funny Girl	William Wyler	Tenth collaboration with William Wyler
1972	Skyjacked	John Guillermin
1973	Lady Ice	Tom Gries
Papillon	Franklin J. Schaffner	Second collaboration with Franklin J. Schaffner
1974	Three the Hard Way	Gordon Parks Jr.
1975	Rooster Cogburn	Stuart Millar
1976	Midway	Jack Smight
1977	Islands in the Stream	Franklin J. Schaffner	Third collaboration with Franklin J. Schaffner
1978	Gray Lady Down	David Greene
The Boys from Brazil	Franklin J. Schaffner	Fourth collaboration with Franklin J. Schaffner
1979	The In-Laws	Arthur Hiller
Going in Style	Martin Brest
1981	Sphinx	Franklin J. Schaffner	Fifth collaboration with Franklin J. Schaffner
1989	Welcome Home	Sixth collaboration with Franklin J. Schaffner
::

::data[format=table title="Editorial department"]

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
1958	The Big Country	William Wyler	Supervising editor	Sixth collaboration with William Wyler
1968	Funny Girl	Supervising film editor
1970	The Liberation of L.B. Jones	Supervising editor	Eleventh collaboration with William Wyler
1971	Cactus in the Snow	A. Martin Zweiback	Supervising film editor
1972	The Cowboys	Mark Rydell
1982	And They're Off	Theodore H. Kuhns III	Supervising editor
::

::data[format=table title="Second unit or assistant director"]

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
1958	The Big Country	William Wyler	Director: Second unit
1965	The Collector	Second unit director
1966	How to Steal a Million
1970	The Only Game in Town	George Stevens	Third collaboration with George Stevens
The Liberation of L.B. Jones	William Wyler
::

;Shorts

::data[format=table title="Editor"]

Year	Film	Director
1943	Double Up	Ben Holmes
Hold Your Temper	Lloyd French
Gem-Jams	Lambert Hillyer
Indian Signs	Charles E. Roberts
Radio Runaround	Lambert Hillyer
Hot Foot	Ben Holmes
Seeing Nellie Home
Cutie on Duty
Unlucky Dog
Wedtime Stories
1944	Prunes and Politics
Say Uncle
Poppa Knows Worst
::

;TV movies

::data[format=table title="Second unit or assistant director"]

Year	Film	Director	Role
1971	In Search of America	Paul Bogart	Second unit director
::

;TV series

::data[format=table title="Editor"]

Year	Title	Notes
1952	Your Jeweler's Showcase	5 episodes
1956	Sneak Preview	1 episode
1965	Peyton Place	8 episodes
::

References

References

1. (August 22, 2000). "Robert E. Swink; Veteran Film Editor". The Los Angeles Times.
2. {{imdb name
3. "Robert Swink at TheOscarSite.com".
4. Biskind, Peter. (1999). "Easy Riders Raging Bulls: How the Sex-Drugs-and Rock 'N Roll Generation Saved Hollywood". Simon and Schuster.

::callout[type=info title="Wikipedia Source"] This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page. ::