Oscar-nominated film editor Tom Priestley has died. Priestley leaves behind a body of work, but audiences best remember him for his work on the film Deliverance.
Priestley actually passed away on December 25, 2023, at the age of 91, but reports of his death just recently became public. The J.B. Priestley Society, named after his father J.B., announced his death on social media.
They wrote, “It with the utmost sadness we announce the death of our President Tom Priestley. Tom who was J. B. Priestley’s only son became one of this country’s finest film editors. Perhaps his most famous film was Deliverance for which he was Oscar Nominated. He was a most charming man.”
Priestley’s work on John Boorman’s Deliverance earned him an Academy Award nomination. In a prior interview, Priestley said he leaned into the spontaneity of the shoot, highlighting moments other editors might have thrown out.
He said, “A lot of the river stuff was in effect improvised because they were actually doing it. Let’s say the canoe going down a rapid might unexpectedly twist round or somebody’s hat would fall off – we incorporated that into the final cut.”
Tom Priestley Worked on Several Films
Boorman and Priestley were frequent collaborators. He also worked on Boorman’s films Leo the Last in 1970 and on Exorcist II: The Heretic as editor. Besides his work with Boorman, Priestley worked on The 1974 version of The Great Gatsby, Tess, The Return of the Pink Panther, and Times Square.
The son of playwright J.B. Priestley and Mary Holland, Priestley grew up well-versed in the entertainment world. Peter Pan author JM Barrie was his godfather. Priestley said he lived “a traditional upper-middle-class nursery life … There was a nanny who looked after me and my younger sister. We were a separate group. If there were no guests, then we were allowed down for Sunday lunch.”
In the 1990s, Priestley announced he was done with editing. He said he “reached the point when I felt I had achieved all I could … I was only using part of myself, and life seemed to consist of the flickering images I saw in the lens of my editing machine. Instinct told me I needed to get out more into the world and reach out to people.”
Priestley turned his attention to teaching and memoralizing his father. He taught at the National Film and Television School. He was also the president of the JB Priestley Society.