Oklahoma film icon credited for cutting Kevin Costner from 'Big Chill' gets honorary Oscar

Alongside fellow Hollywood legends Mel Brooks and Angela Bassett, an Oklahoma native revered for her behind-the-scenes work on classic films like “E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial,” “The Big Chill” and “Body Heat” has received one of the first Oscars of this cinematic awards season.

Born in Oklahoma City and raised in northeastern Oklahoma, Carol Littleton received an honorary Oscar for her nearly five-decade career as a film editor at the 14th Governors Awards Jan. 9 in Los Angeles.

Hosted by Oscar organizers the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the star-studded gala honored Littleton, Brooks and Bassett for their career achievements. The untelevised event also featured the presentation of the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award to Michelle Satter, founder and director of the Sundance Institute's artist programs.

Attended by Martin Scorsese, Leonardo DiCaprio, Christopher Nolan, Robert Downey Jr., Penélope Cruz, Natalie Portman, Bradley Cooper, Regina King, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane and more, the Governors Awards dinner was originally scheduled for November but postponed to January due to the Hollywood strikes.

Comedian John Mulaney hosted the event, where he also made his red-carpet debut with his girlfriend, OKC native Olivia Munn, with whom he shares a 2-year-old son.

Both Mulaney and presenter Glenn Close paid homage to Littleton’s storied career as a film editor.

“This Oscar is the Everest moment of my adventure in film, the dream fulfilled,” Littleton said in accepting the Oscar.

“I accept it for all editors who toil in the darkness of an editing room, weighing each cut, making infinite choices to create a unique, believable world born of the imagination.”

Where in Oklahoma did honorary Oscar winner Carol Littleton grow up?

Born in OKC, Littleton moved with her family to Miami, Oklahoma, when she was 3 years old. When she was 11, they moved again to the country.

“So, I had kind of a variety of ways of looking at Oklahoma, and I'm still terribly fond of it,” Littleton told The Oklahoman in a 2016 interview.

In her honorary Oscar acceptance speech, Littleton recalled how her “adventure in film” started when she was growing up in the 1940s and going to movies at one of the three theaters in Miami, including the now-restored Coleman Theatre, where her sister is a volunteer.

“My sister and I attended the kiddie matinee every Saturday, with our little outfits — our Western outfits: cowboy boots, hat, jeans — and two shiny quarters in our pocket to cover the price of admission for three hours of uninterrupted entertainment,” Littleton recalled.

“Kids without adults had unbridled freedom to laugh and shout and make-believe in total chaos. It was fantastic. I loved it.”

While attending the University of Oklahoma, the Fulbright scholar studied abroad in Paris, where going to the movies supplied a shortcut for learning colloquial French. During her European studies, she met fellow American student John Bailey, a future Hollywood cinematographer.

“Little did I know that John would change my life, lure me to Los Angeles, where we would marry and share a life in film, working our way through the ranks, learning on the job, helping and supporting each other,” Littleton said. “We were lucky to work on 12 films together.”

Littleton ended her speech by thanking her husband of 51 years, who died in November at age 81.

What films has Oklahoman Carol Littleton worked on?

In 1982, Littleton earned an Oscar nomination for filming editing for “E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial.”

“I'm frequently asked, ‘Why do you think “E.T.” is a perennial favorite?’ There are so many reasons, but fundamentally, it's a powerful story about tolerance for the other. Elliott, Michael and Gertie learn to trust and love the alien among them,” she said. “With a little humility and patience, we, too, can find our common humanity in uncommon places.”

Her other notable credits include “Places in the Heart,” “The Accidental Tourist,” “Wyatt Earp,” “Benny & Joon,” “Silverado” and the 2004 remake of “The Manchurian Candidate.” In 2000, she won a Primetime Emmy Award for her work on the television movie “Tuesdays with Morrie.”

The last film she edited was the 2018 HBO movie “My Dinner with Hervé.”

Littleton also has served as governor of the Academy’s film editors branch, as president and vice president of the Motion Picture Editors Guild and on the board of directors of American Cinema Editors. She was just the second woman to serve as president of the editors guild, and she has worked throughout her career to ensure women editors have opportunities in the industry.

In 2016, she received both the career achievement award from the American Cinema Editors and the Oklahoma Film Icon Award at OKC’s deadCenter Film Festival.

"Carol is a legend in the film community whose editing expertise has spanned decades and blockbuster films. We could not be more proud to celebrate this incredibly talented Oklahoman,” deadCenter Film Executive Director Cacky Poarch said in an email.

How did John Mulaney and Glenn Close pay tribute to the honorary Oscar winner?

Both Mulaney and Close paid tribute to Littleton’s work on the influential 1983 film “The Big Chill,” with the comic coining the phrase “the Costner slash” in her honor in his opening monologue.

“Carol Littleton’s work is incredible. … It was Carol Littleton’s hand that cut a young Kevin Costner completely out of the movie ‘The Big Chill,’” Mulaney said. “He played Alex, their college friend who's passed away, and apparently, director Lawrence Kasdan really liked young Costner's performance. But it was Carol Littleton who said, ‘Nah.’”

Close received the second of her eight career Oscar nominations for her supporting turn as Sarah Cooper in the hit movie.

“‘The Big Chill’ was the true beginning of my education in the craft of film acting. I was so incredibly lucky to be in such brilliant hands, because, in retrospect, it was really the wordless, beautifully edited moments that gave Sarah Cooper her emotional weight with the audience,” Close said.

“You can act until your panties fray and the cows come home, and it won't resonate for a second unless you were lit by a John Bailey, directed by a Larry Kasdan and edited with love, intelligence, empathy and rigor by none other than the truly great human being Carol Littleton.”

This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Oklahoma native and film editor Carol Littleton gets honorary Oscar