Hollywood Film Industry figure. She was a noted pioneering film editor, working as the editor on every Cecil B. DeMille film, starting in 1915 and continuing for the next forty years. DeMille, an American film director and producer, personally trained her with their first production together being "Carmen" in 1915, which listed her name in the credits. In the 1918 film "The Squaw Man" she was credited as assistant director. As a team, their last production was "The Ten Commandments" in 1956 for a total of 62 films. Twenty-six of her films were with Paramount Pictures. In error, four of her earliest film credits name her as "Ann Bauchens." After the category for Best Film Editing was created in 1934 by the Academy Awards, she received public recognition for her talented endeavors. She received four nominations for an Academy Award: "Cleopatra" in 1934, "The Greatest Show on Earth" in 1952, "The Ten Commandments" in 1956, and "North West Mounted Police" in 1940, which she received the Oscar. A true pioneer in the film industry, she was the first woman to be nominated for this category, and the first woman to receive the Oscar for the Best Film Editing. In DeMille's 1959 autobiography, he wrote: "In every contract I sign to produce a picture one essential clause is that Anne Bauchens will be its editor. That is not sentiment, or at least not only sentiment. She is still the best film editor I know." Born the only daughter of two children of Otto Bauchens, a German-American railroad porter, she studied dance and drama with the goal of entering show business, but her hometown had limitations on that career, thus she became a telephone operator. As a young woman at age twenty, she left her hometown to travel to New York City in hope of becoming an actress on the Broadway stage, but the career never materialized. In 1912 at the age of 30, she got a job as DeMille's secretary and as they say, the rest is history. Nicknamed "Trojan Annie," she was dedicated to DeMille with her work being her main priority. She never married or had any children. She and DeMille, as a director-editor team, collaborated on the same movie project filmed decades apart, "The Ten Commandments" in 1923 and 1956. She was the first recipient of the Life Achievement Award given by her colleagues, the American Cinema Editors (ACE). After a career starting in the silent movies era and ending in the "talkies" with Technicolor, she died as a resident in the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital, a retirement home for members of the film industry.
Hollywood Film Industry figure. She was a noted pioneering film editor, working as the editor on every Cecil B. DeMille film, starting in 1915 and continuing for the next forty years. DeMille, an American film director and producer, personally trained her with their first production together being "Carmen" in 1915, which listed her name in the credits. In the 1918 film "The Squaw Man" she was credited as assistant director. As a team, their last production was "The Ten Commandments" in 1956 for a total of 62 films. Twenty-six of her films were with Paramount Pictures. In error, four of her earliest film credits name her as "Ann Bauchens." After the category for Best Film Editing was created in 1934 by the Academy Awards, she received public recognition for her talented endeavors. She received four nominations for an Academy Award: "Cleopatra" in 1934, "The Greatest Show on Earth" in 1952, "The Ten Commandments" in 1956, and "North West Mounted Police" in 1940, which she received the Oscar. A true pioneer in the film industry, she was the first woman to be nominated for this category, and the first woman to receive the Oscar for the Best Film Editing. In DeMille's 1959 autobiography, he wrote: "In every contract I sign to produce a picture one essential clause is that Anne Bauchens will be its editor. That is not sentiment, or at least not only sentiment. She is still the best film editor I know." Born the only daughter of two children of Otto Bauchens, a German-American railroad porter, she studied dance and drama with the goal of entering show business, but her hometown had limitations on that career, thus she became a telephone operator. As a young woman at age twenty, she left her hometown to travel to New York City in hope of becoming an actress on the Broadway stage, but the career never materialized. In 1912 at the age of 30, she got a job as DeMille's secretary and as they say, the rest is history. Nicknamed "Trojan Annie," she was dedicated to DeMille with her work being her main priority. She never married or had any children. She and DeMille, as a director-editor team, collaborated on the same movie project filmed decades apart, "The Ten Commandments" in 1923 and 1956. She was the first recipient of the Life Achievement Award given by her colleagues, the American Cinema Editors (ACE). After a career starting in the silent movies era and ending in the "talkies" with Technicolor, she died as a resident in the Motion Picture and Television Country House and Hospital, a retirement home for members of the film industry.
Read More
Bio by: Linda Davis