Richard Serly Brummer

1924 - 2022
Richard Serly Brummer, accomplished film editor, peacefully passed away at his home on January 22 at the age of 98 years with his daughter and son at his side.
Born in 1924, Richard was the youngest of two children. His mother Etelka Serly Brummer was a dancer and dance teacher. His father Imre Brummer an international art dealer (The Brummer Art Galleries). Richard's grandfather Lajos Serly, his uncle Tibor Serly and brother André S. Brummer, were all composer-conductors.
Richard attended Professional Children's School and later George Washington High School. As a child actor he appeared in the Broadway production of Noel Coward's "Conversation Piece", as well as several off-Broadway shows
While in high school Richard was given the opportunity by the War Civil Service Program to study and train in physics, electronics, and radar engineering. He enlisted in the Army where he served during WWII as part of the U.S. Army Signal Corps attached to the Air Force as a RADAR Engineering Crew Chief in full charge (in lieu of a commissioned officer). With the end of the war, he was honorably discharged in 1946 with the rank of Tech-3 (Staff Sgt.).
After serving his country, Richard attended Parsons School of Design and NYU. With Parsons he was able to study painting in Italy and Paris. While in Paris, Richard developed a number of audio visual ideas that he felt could best be expressed thru the motion picture medium. When he returned to the US, Richard continued his education at NYU with a series of film courses called 'New Frontiers in the Cinema'.
Richard took an active interest and part in America's post-war experimental film movement. He became engaged in the production of several experimental films and was principally instrumental in bringing together leading film experimentalists to form IMFA, the Independent Filmmakers Association, Inc. Films Richard co-produced, edited and/or directed that were honored as international film festival selections included "The Drum", "First Fear" and notably Roger Tilton's "Jazz Dance"
Later Richard would move to Los Angeles where he would have a long career as a sound and picture editor. He would work on over 40 features, and over 100 other TV shows, commercials, trailers, music videos, educational and training films, documentaries and 70mm, 8 track 360 Expo Spectaculars. His experience with equipment went from Moviolas to Flat Beds, from tape-to-tape edit controllers to Montage, Laser-Edit and finally to Avid.
As Richard would say, you can read many of his credits on IMBD.com. He was a member of the Motion Picture Editors guild, MPEG, IATSE local 700.
Richard is survived by his daughter Alison, son Byron, daughter-in-law Janine, grandchildren Maximilian and Billie, and nephews Ernest and Eric. He will be laid to rest next to his late wife of 40 years, Louise, and near his brother André on March 21, 2022 at the Riverside National Ceremony with a military honors service.