Biography
Basil Wrangell (also credited as Basil Wrangel) was an Italian-born film and television editor and director. Born Basilio Petrovich von Wrangell on 19 June 1906 in Ponte a Moriano, Tuscany, he attended the Grosvenor School in Nottingham, England. A chance role as interpreter for director Fred Niblo on Ben-Hur led him to the United States and an entry-level position in a studio cutting room in the mid-1920s.
He became a film editor at MGM and later worked on other productions, with credits including Freaks (1932), Ladies They Talk About (1933), The Good Earth (1937), for which he received an Academy Award nomination, and Love Happy (1949). Wrangell also directed shorts and features such as Heartaches (1947) and segments of South Seas Adventure (1958). In television he edited episodes of series including I Spy, Peyton Place, Combat! and Adventures in Paradise. He died in Los Angeles on 26 April 1977.
