Hugh Stewart (film editor)

Hugh St Clair Stewart

During World War II, Stewart was commissioned into the Army Film and Photographic Unit (AFPU) in 1940 and in 1942 led No. 2 AFPU during the Allied landings in Tunisia. The following year he edited film footage from the fighting into the documentary Desert Victory. In 1944 he co-directed Tunisian Victory with Frank Capra and John Houston, although much of that film was shot in the United States. Stewart went on to lead No. 5 AFPU, covering the D-Day landings, the Battle for Caen and the Rhine Crossing.

Stewart insisted on filming Bergen-Belsen concentration camp following its liberation,^[1] with its piles of bodies being bulldozed into mass graves, its overcrowded barrack blocks and pitifully emaciated survivors. He was awarded a military MBE and demobilized with the rank of lieutenant-colonel.

Film producer

After World War II, Stewart became a film producer, beginning with Trottie True (1949). He began to produce the films of comedian Norman Wisdom,^[1] from Man of the Moment (1955) onwards, and the comedy duo of Morecambe and Wise.^[1] Although he went into semi-retirement in the late 1960s, he produced several films for the Children's Film Foundation,^[1] including All at Sea (1970), Mr. Horatio Knibbles (1971), and High Rise Donkey (1980).

Personal life

He was married to Frances Curl and they had four children.

He died on 31 May 2011, at the age of 100.

Selected filmography

References

• Listing from the British Cinema History Research Project

External links

• Hugh Stewart at
  IMDb
• Obituary in The Telegraph