---
name: "Dorothy Spencer"
canonical: "https://film.one/person/dorothy-spencer"
roles: ["Editor"]
born: "3 February 1909"
died: "23 May 2002"
reviewed_on_fi1m: 2
average_fi1m_score: 86
updated: "2026-09-16T11:57:26.763788+00:00"
licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL."
---

# Dorothy Spencer

Editor. Born 3 February 1909 in Covington, Kentucky, USA. Died 23 May 2002.

## Details

- **Work:** Editor
- **Born:** 3 February 1909, Covington, Kentucky, USA
- **Died:** 23 May 2002
- **Active:** 1939–1942

## Biography

Dorothy Spencer was an American film editor whose career spanned more than fifty years and included seventy-five feature film credits. She began working in the industry in the mid-1920s, joining the editorial department at Fox after earlier employment at a film laboratory.

She co-edited *Stagecoach* (1939) with Otho Lovering for director John Ford and later edited further Ford films including *My Darling Clementine* (1946). Spencer worked with Alfred Hitchcock on *Foreign Correspondent* (1940) and *Lifeboat* (1944), with Ernst Lubitsch on *To Be or Not to Be* (1942) and other titles, and with Elia Kazan on *A Tree Grows in Brooklyn* (1945). Her other credits include *Cleopatra* (1963), *Von Ryan's Express* (1965) and *Earthquake* (1974).

Spencer received four Academy Award nominations for Best Film Editing, for *Stagecoach*, *Decision Before Dawn* (1951), *Cleopatra* and *Earthquake*. She was awarded the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award in 1989. She retired in 1979.

*Sources: en.wikipedia.org, imdb.com, nytimes.com, encyclopedia.com.*

## On Fi1m (2)

- *To Be or Not to Be* (1942), Fi1m 87, Editor — [page](https://film.one/film/to-be-or-not-to-be.md)
- *Stagecoach* (1939), Fi1m 84, Editor — [page](https://film.one/film/stagecoach.md)

## Also known for

- *Cleopatra* (1963), Editor
- *Lifeboat* (1944), Editor
- *My Darling Clementine* (1946), Editor
- *Foreign Correspondent* (1940), Editor
- *Earthquake* (1974), Editor
- *The Ghost and Mrs. Muir* (1947), Editor
- *Von Ryan's Express* (1965), Editor
- *Heaven Can Wait* (1943), Editor

---
© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/person/dorothy-spencer