Leaving behind decades of experience and work in the Hollywood film industry, Maureen “Mo” Henry has died at the age of 67 after complications with liver disease. Her son, Logan, revealed the news to The Hollywood Reporter.
Henry had five decades’ worth of experience with cutting the negatives of film cells, starting with the film Jaws in 1975. While taking a break from film to pursue real estate, she would return to the film industry and work on some of the biggest movies in the 1990s and beyond.
Some of these films included Heat (1995), The Big Lebowski (1998), The Sixth Sense (1999), The Matrix (1999), My Big Fat Greek Wedding (2002), The Blind Side (2009), and Interstellar (2014). She has also worked on franchises such as Harry Potter, Spiderman, and The Dark Knight.
Henry first got into the film-cutting industry through her family. Henry explained in an interview with the Chicago Film Society how her aunt founded negative cutting while working for Fox Studios. “Then she gave my dad and his brothers jobs, and then my dad gave my older cousins jobs, and then finally my dad trained me,” Henry said.
While she has had many rewarding and frustrating times working in the film industry, one of her funniest memories was on The Big Lebowski. When trying to contact the editorial crew of the studio, she was given a weird name as to who would be the main editor.
The jokes continued for 15 minutes until the directors, The Coen Brothers, finally came on the phone and revealed that they had edited their films.
“It started out with a laugh from the beginning,” Henry told the film society.
Henry leaves behind her work in films that not only touched the hearts of millions but is survived by her sister, Sue, her brother, Pat, and her son, Logan.