Tarantino's Editor Sally Menke Found Dead

SEPT 29, 2010 - Quentin Tarantino's long time film editor, Sally Menke (pic), was found dead in Los Angeles. She was 56. Menke was an Oscar-nominated editor who collaborated with director Tarantino on all of his films.

She is thought to have died from heat stroke while hiking in the Hollywood Hills during a record hot spell. Her body was discovered in the early hours of Tuesday in Beachwood Canyon on the west side of Griffith Park. Her black Labrador retriever was standing near the body.

Officials believe Menke, who had a history of seizures, died from hyperthermia after collapsing from the heat. Temperatures reached a record high of 48 degrees C on Tuesday in parts of Los Angeles.

Born in 1953, Menke studied at New York University before going on to edit documentaries for the CBS network. Her other films include Oliver Stone's Heaven and Earth, Billy Bob Thornton's All the Pretty Horses and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles in 1990. Menke edited every Tarantino film from Reservoir Dogs in 1992 to last year's Inglourious Basterds.

Her husband, Dean Parisot, said she was "truly proud of two things in her life - above all her family [and] her work."

Her two Oscar nominations came for Pulp Fiction in 1995 and for Basterds, which starred Brad Pitt, earlier this year. - From BBC, agencies.