Margaret Booth

Margaret Booth (January 16, 1898 – October 28, 2002) was an American film editor. In a career lasting seven decades, Booth was most associated with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.

Born in Los Angeles, Margaret was the younger sister of actor Elmer Booth, who starred in several films for D. W. Griffith. Elmer was killed in a car accident, and Griffith later employed Margaret as a negative cutter. Booth worked with Griffith's studio for several years. She later joined Louis B. Mayer's namesake studio, where she was mentored by film director John M. Stahl. In 1924, Mayer merged his studio with Metro Pictures and Goldwyn Pictures to form Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. Stahl and Booth joined MGM, where she edited several of his films. Stahl later left MGM, while Booth stayed. She was named the studio's first official film editor by Irving Thalberg, MGM's then-production head. In 1935, Booth received an Academy Award nomination for Best Film Editing on Mutiny on the Bounty.

After Thalberg's death, Mayer appointed Booth as the MGM's supervising film editor, a position she held for nearly three decades. Booth retired from MGM in 1968 and was hired by Ray Stark as a supervising film editor for his Rastar Productions company. In 1977, Booth was awarded an Academy Honorary Award for her decades-long contributions as a film editor. She received her last credit as an executive producer for The Slugger's Wife (1985). Booth became a centenarian in 1998, and died in 2002 at the age of 104.