Kenneth Heeley-Ray

Kenneth Heeley-Ray (October 26, 1916 - January 19, 2006) was a British-Canadian film sound editor,^[1] most noted as a Canadian Film Award and Genie Award winner for Best Overall Sound and Best Sound Editing.^[2]

Born and raised in Macclesfield, Cheshire, he began his career in British film before moving to Canada in 1952 to work for the National Film Board of Canada; initially a short-term contract, he remained with the agency for 12 years before beginning to work for commercial film studios in the 1960s.^[3] He was also an occasional producer, winning a CFA in 1966 as coproducer with his wife Ann of the short educational film The Scribe.^[2]

After his retirement from the film industry in the early 1990s, his colleagues began to organize a campaign to have the Genie Awards honour him with a lifetime achievement award. Their efforts quickly garnered enthusiastic support from Canadian and international industry figures including Oliver Stone, Jean-Jacques Annaud, Daniel Petrie, Christopher Chapman, Bob Clark, Harold Greenberg and Garth Drabinsky, all of whom wrote letters of tribute praising Heeley-Ray's dedication, professionalism and willingness to mentor younger colleagues entering the industry, to the point that even Genie publicist Maria Topalovich was moved to tears reading them.^[3] He received the lifetime achievement award at the 14th Genie Awards in 1993.^[1]

He died in 2006 on Saltspring Island, British Columbia.