Quentin Tarantino has been making films for almost twenty years and through that entire period of time, Sally Menke has served as the controversial filmmaker’s trusted friend and film editor. It is with great regret that we’ve learned today that Menke has died. The LA Times reported that her body was discovered today in the early hours of the morning after friends alerted authorities to her absence. She supposedly went hiking with her dog in Beachwood Canyon, CA on Monday but never returned home. Temperatures reached an all-time high of 113 degrees Fahrenheit in Los Angeles on Monday.
Her dog was found alive and well and police have launched an investigation into her demise, although the cause of death has yet to be confirmed. It very well could have been the heat, as many Angeleno’s took to social media sites like Twitter to comment on the searing heat.
Menke began her career in 1988 as an editor on a TV documentary called The Congress. Her big break came a year later when she landed a job on Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which went on to gross $135 million domestically. Menke then worked on a much darker picture – Tarantino’s 1992 directorial debut Reservoir Dogs – which cemented both of their status’ as creative wunderkinds. The pair would continue to collaborate on every one of Tarantino’s films including his 2009 global hit Inglourious Basterds. Other credits include Oliver Stone’s Heaven & Earth and Lee Tamahori’s Mulholland Falls.
Menke’s work on Pulp Fiction earned her an Oscar nomination in 1995 and she received further recognition by the Academy earlier this year for her work on Inglorious Basterds.
