Tony Martinelli; Film Editor

BURBANK —  Tony Martinelli, an Emmy-nominated film editor whose career spanned nearly seven decades, has died. He was 86.

During his career, Martinelli amassed hundreds of television and feature film credits, including “Twilight for the Gods,” “The Last Command,” and “Johnny Trouble.” He received an Emmy nomination for “Alcoa Premiere.”

Martinelli suffered a fatal heart attack last Thursday in his Burbank home, according to his son, John A. Martinelli of Studio City, an Emmy-winning producer and film editor.

According to Martinelli’s son, Steven Spielberg publicly acknowledged Martinelli as the only person at Universal Studios who invited him into the editing room and offered to look at Spielberg’s student videos.

“He must’ve cut 300 features in his career, mostly B movies,” said his son. “Nothing really great, but in an industry that loves to eat people alive, he kept right on going for 68 years.”

Born Nov. 26, 1909, in Hoboken, N.J., Martinelli was adopted by his uncle Arthur Martinelli, who was believed to be one of the first movie cameramen in the country.

Inspired by his uncle and an older brother who was a cinematographer for the Jesse Lasky Feature Play Co., Martinelli began his career at the Paramount Film Laboratory and soon began producing and editing two-reel travelogues.

In the early 1930s, while at Tech-Art Studios in Hollywood, now the site of Raleigh Studios, Martinelli met his future wife, Betty, who was private secretary to the head of Allied Pictures. They had been married for 58 years when she died in 1992.

In 1936, Martinelli joined Republic Pictures, where he edited nearly all of the Roy Rogers westerns released by the studio. When the company folded in the late 1950s, Martinelli moved to Universal Studios, where he remained until his retirement in 1993.

Martinelli was a member of the Motion Picture Film Editors Guild, the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences and the American Cinema Editors.

In addition to his son, Martinelli is survived by his daughter, Nancy Martinelli of Burbank, and a brother, Enzo Martinelli of Jackson, Tenn.

Services will be held today at 10 a.m. at the Old North Church, Forest Lawn-Hollywood Hills.

Memorial donations may be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund, 23450 Calabasas Road, Woodland Hills.