Jim Clark is a British

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

 film editor and director.

Clark was born in 1931, and grew up in Boston, Lincolnshire

Boston, Lincolnshire

Boston is a town and small port in Lincolnshire, on the east coast of England. It is the largest town of the wider Borough of Boston local government district and had a total population of 55,750 at the 2001 census...

. Clark moved to London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

, and in 1951 he began work as an assistant editor at the legendary Ealing Studios

Ealing Studios

Ealing Studios is a television and film production company and facilities provider at Ealing Green in West London. Will Barker bought the White Lodge on Ealing Green in 1902 as a base for film making, and films have been made on the site ever since...

. Subsequently, Clark worked as a freelance assistant editor on two films directed by Stanley Donen

Stanley Donen

Stanley Donen ; is an American film director and choreographer whose most celebrated works are Singin' in the Rain and On the Town, both of which he co-directed with Gene Kelly. His other noteworthy films include Royal Wedding, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Funny Face, Indiscreet, Damn...

 and edited by Jack Harris

Jack Harris (film editor)

Jack Harris was a British film editor. Along with David Lean, he was one of the leading British editors from the 1930s to the 1950s.-Selected filmography:* Lord Richard in the Pantry * The Sleeping Cardinal...

. When Harris declined the opportunity to work on Donen's subsequent film, Surprise Package

Surprise Package (film)

Surprise Package is a 1960 American comedy film directed by Stanley Donen and starring Yul Bryner, Mitzi Gaynor, Noel Coward, Eric Pohlmann and Barry Foster. An American gangster living on a Greek island and a deposed King hatch a plan to steal some crown jewels....

 (1960), Donen gave Clark the job. As Clark later wrote,

He received an Academy Award

Academy Award for Film Editing

The Academy Award for Film Editing is one of the annual awards of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Nominations for this award are closely correlated with the Academy Award for Best Picture. Since 1981, every film selected as Best Picture has also been nominated for the Film Editing...

 and a BAFTA Award

BAFTA Award for Best Editing

The BAFTA Award for Best Editing is one of several annual awards presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts . The film-voting members of the Academy select the five nominated films in each category; only the principal editor for each film are named, which excludes additional...

 for the editing of The Killing Fields

The Killing Fields (film)

The Killing Fields is a 1984 British drama film about the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, which is based on the experiences of two journalists: Cambodian Dith Pran and American Sydney Schanberg. The film, which won three Academy Awards, was directed by Roland Joffé and stars Sam Waterston as...

(1984); he received a second BAFTA Award for editing The Mission (1986). Clark was also nominated for BAFTA Awards for his editing of the films Vera Drake

Vera Drake

Vera Drake is a 2004 British drama film written and directed by Mike Leigh, telling the story of a working-class woman in London in 1950 who performs illegal abortions...

(2004) and Marathon Man

Marathon Man (film)

Marathon Man is a 1976 thriller film based on the novel of the same name by William Goldman. The film was directed by John Schlesinger, and stars Dustin Hoffman, Roy Scheider, and Laurence Olivier. The original music score was composed by Michael Small....

(1976). In 2005, Clark received the American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award

American Cinema Editors Career Achievement Award

The American Cinema Editors gives one or more Career Achievement Awards each year. The first awards were given in 1987; the winners have been:*2011: Michael Kahn and Michael Brown*2010: Paul LaMastra and Neil Travis*2009: Sidney Katz and Arthur Schmidt...

.

Responding to a question about the major influences on his editing, Clark said

As a director he was responsible for Rentadick (1972) and Madhouse

Madhouse

Madhouse may refer to:* Madhouse is a colloquial term for a psychiatric hospital or other mental institution* Madhouse is the nickname given to Double One in darts- Films :* Madhouse , a 1974 film featuring Vincent Price...

(1974) starring Vincent Price

Vincent Price

Vincent Leonard Price, Jr. was an American actor, well known for his distinctive voice and serio-comic attitude in a series of horror films made in the latter part of his career.-Early life and career:Price was born in St...

.

Clark now lives in Kensington

Kensington

Kensington is a district of west and central London, England within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An affluent and densely-populated area, its commercial heart is Kensington High Street, and it contains the well-known museum district of South Kensington.To the north, Kensington is...

with his wife Laurence Méry-Clark, who is also a film and television editor. They married in 1961 and have three children.