Aaron Stell (March 26, 1911 â January 7, 1996) was an American film editor with one hundred feature film credits and many additional credits for his television work. He is best known for his work on Touch of Evil (directed by Orson Welles-1958), To Kill a Mockingbird (directed by Robert Mulligan-1962), and Silent Running (directed by Douglas Trumbull-1972).
Aaron Stell was born on March 26, 1911. After graduating from Los Angeles High School, he worked as a postmaster for Fox Film in the late 1920s.
Stell's earliest editing career was for Columbia Pictures, where he worked at from 1943 to 1955. He then worked for other Hollywood studios for the rest of his career. Touch of Evil, which was directed by Orson Welles, proved difficult for Stell; he was not the initial editor but instead chosen for re-editing, and he noted that Welles became "ill, depressed, and unhappy with the studio's impatience" in the process.
Stell had been selected as a member of the American Cinema Editors. He was nominated for the American Cinema Editors Eddie Award for To Kill a Mockingbird (1962). He was also nominated for Eddies for his television work on an episode of Ben Casey (1961) and on the mini-series ' (1980). In 1996 he shared the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award with Desmond Marquette.
Since the early 1940s, Stell worked as an oil painter. By 1964, he has painted over 50 paintings. Stell died in Los Angeles at age 84.