George Folsey Jr.

George Joseph Folsey Jr. (January 17, 1939 – December 29, 2024) was an American film producer, editor, and assistant director.

George Folsey Jr.
Born	(1939-01-17)January 17, 1939 Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Died	December 29, 2024(2024-12-29) (aged 85) Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Occupations	Film producer editor assistant director
Notable work	Animal House The Blues Brothers Coming to America

Life and career

Folsey was born in Los Angeles on January 17, 1939, the son of George J. Folsey.^[1] He was educated at Pomona College.^[1]

Folsey began his career at KABC-TV in Los Angeles, before moving into film.^[1] He frequently worked with director John Landis in the 1980s. In 1987, he was acquitted in a manslaughter case brought over the deaths of actor Vic Morrow and two children in a helicopter accident on the set of Twilight Zone: The Movie.^[1]

Folsey and his wife, Belinda, had two children.^[1] He died from pneumonia in Los Angeles on December 29, 2024, at the age of 85.^[1][2][3]

At the 97th Academy Awards, his name was mentioned in the In Memoriam section.^[4]

Significant collaborations

With John Landis

Folsey Jr. edited or co-edited six Landis films: all productions from Schlock (1973) to The Blues Brothers (1980), Thriller and Coming to America. Folsey produced eleven films directed or co-directed by Landis (Schlock, The Blues Brothers, all films from An American Werewolf in London to Coming to America). He was also second unit director on Landis' Trading Places, Into the Night and Three Amigos projects. His son, editor Ryan Folsey appeared in Landis's first feature film Schlock. Folsey's name is mentioned in a scene in Trading Places when Louis Winthorpe gives his coat to the coat attendant and says "Good morning, Folsey."

Selected filmography

Editor

Year	Film	Director	Notes
1972	Glass Houses	Alexander Singer
	Bone	Larry Cohen	First collaboration with Larry Cohen
	Hammer	Bruce D. Clark
1973	Black Caesar	Larry Cohen	Second collaboration with Larry Cohen
	Schlock	John Landis	First collaboration with John Landis
	Trader Horn	Reza Badiyi
1975	Bucktown	Arthur Marks	First collaboration with Arthur Marks
1976	Tracks	Henry Jaglom
	J. D.'s Revenge	Arthur Marks	Second collaboration with Arthur Marks
	Norman... Is That You?	George Schlatter
1977	The Kentucky Fried Movie	John Landis	Second collaboration with John Landis
	The Chicken Chronicles	Frank Simon
1978	Animal House	John Landis	Third collaboration with John Landis
1980	The Blues Brothers		Fourth collaboration with John Landis
1981	Sourdough	Martin J. Spinelli
1988	Coming to America	John Landis	Twelfth collaboration with John Landis
1996	Bulletproof	Ernest Dickerson
	Entertaining Angels: The Dorothy Day Story	Michael Ray Rhodes
1998	Dirty Work	Bob Saget
1999	Goosed	Aleta Chappelle
2003	Basic	John McTiernan
	Cheaper by the Dozen	Shawn Levy	First collaboration with Shawn Levy
2004	The Kings of Brooklyn	Lance Lane
2005	Hostel	Eli Roth	Second collaboration with Eli Roth
	The Ringer	Barry W. Blaustein
2006	The Pink Panther	Shawn Levy	Second collaboration with Shawn Levy
	Unaccompanied Minors	Paul Feig
	Pledge This!	William Heins Strathford Hamilton
2007	Hostel: Part II	Eli Roth	Third collaboration with Eli Roth
	The Gray Man	Scott Flynn
2008	Sex Drive	Sean Anders
2010	Hot Tub Time Machine	Steve Pink
2012	Freeloaders	Dan Rosen
2014	My Sister	David Lascher
	Dead Within	Ben Wagner
2015	Chain of Command	Kevin Carraway
	Clarity	Peyv Raz
	The Wicked Within	Jay Alaimo
2021	Death Link	David Lipper	First collaboration with David Lipper
	Just Swipe	Elizabeth Blake-Thomas
2022	Wolf Mountain	David Lipper	Second collaboration with David Lipper
2024	Summer Rain	Josiah David Warren

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
1979	Portrait of a Hitman	Allan A. Buckhantz	Supervising editor
	The Great Santini	Lewis John Carlino	Consulting editor
2001	Super Troopers	Jay Chandrasekhar	Additional editor	First collaboration with Jay Chandrasekhar
2007	Love and Mary	Elizabeth Harrison	Supervising editor
2008	Igor	Tony Leondis	Additional editor

Actor

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
1983	Trading Places	John Landis	Extra	Uncredited

Additional crew

Year	Film	Director	Role
1972	Glass Houses	Alexander Singer	Camera operator

Cinematographer

Year	Film	Director
1972	Glass Houses	Alexander Singer

Producer

Year	Film	Director	Credit	Notes
1972	Glass Houses	Alexander Singer	Producer
1973	Schlock	John Landis	Executive producer
1980	The Blues Brothers		Associate producer
1981	An American Werewolf in London		Producer	Fifth collaboration with John Landis
1983	Trading Places		Executive producer	Sixth collaboration with John Landis
	Twilight Zone: The Movie		Associate producer	Prologue / "Time Out" segment Seventh collaboration with John Landis
1985	Into the Night		Producer	Eighth collaboration with John Landis
	Spies Like Us			Ninth collaboration with John Landis
	Clue	Jonathan Lynn	Executive producer	First collaboration with Jonathan Lynn
1986	Three Amigos	John Landis	Producer	Tenth collaboration with John Landis
1987	Amazon Women on the Moon	Joe Dante Carl Gottlieb Peter Horton John Landis Robert K. Weiss	Executive producer	Eleventh collaboration with John Landis
1988	Coming to America	John Landis	Producer
1993	The Thing Called Love	Peter Bogdanovich	Executive producer
1994	Greedy	Jonathan Lynn		Second collaboration with Jonathan Lynn
1995	Grumpier Old Men	Howard Deutch	Co-producer
2014	Dead Within	Ben Wagner	Producer
2020	Reboot Camp	Ivo Raza	Executive producer
2021	Death Link	David Lipper

Second unit director or assistant director

Year	Film	Director	Role
1983	Trading Places	John Landis	Second unit director
1985	Into the Night
1986	Three Amigos

Thanks

Year	Film	Director	Role	Notes
2002	Cabin Fever	Eli Roth	Very special thanks	First collaboration with Eli Roth
2004	Club Dread	Jay Chandrasekhar	Thanks	Second collaboration with Jay Chandrasekhar
2008	The Rainbow Tribe	Christopher R. Watson	Very special thanks
2011	Cellmates	Jesse Baget	Special thanks

Direct-to-video films

Editor

Year	Film	Director
2006	Pledge This!	William Heins Strathford Hamilton
2011	Hostel: Part III	Scott Spiegel

Documentaries

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1977	Exploring the Unknown	Alan Neuman

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role
1970	Elvis: That's the Way It Is	Denis Sanders	Associate film editor

Thanks

Year	Film	Director	Role
2004	Edgar G. Ulmer: The Man Off-Screen	Michael Palm	Thanks

Shorts

Editor

Year	Film	Director
2007	Thanksgiving	Eli Roth
	Latchkey's Lament	Troy Nixey
2008	Hole in the Paper Sky	Bill Purple
2010	Despair	Alex Prager
2016	One World	Julien Seri

Editorial department

Year	Film	Director	Role
2000	The Right Hook	Luke Greenfield	Additional editor

Television films

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1977	It Happened at Lakewood Manor	Robert Scheerer
1979	Freedom Road	Ján Kadár

Television pilots

Producer

Year	Film	Director	Credit
2003	Fargo	Kathy Bates	Producer

Television series

Editor

Year	Title	Notes
1967	The Monkees	1 episode
1973−74	Shaft	4 episodes
1979	Freedom Road	2 episodes

Television shorts

Producer

Year	Film	Director	Credit
1971	Red, Red, Freckled	Leonid Nosyrev	Producer

Television specials

Editor

Year	Film	Director
1968	Here's Peggy Fleming	Robert Scheerer
2011	Wendy Liebman: Taller on TV	Wendy Liebman