Bud Molin, 81; TV, film editor worked on ‘Lucy’ and ‘Dick Van Dyke’

Bud Molin, 81, a veteran film and television editor who edited “I Love Lucy” and worked frequently with director Carl Reiner, beginning with “The Dick Van Dyke Show,” died Monday at his home in Rancho Mirage after being in poor health for a year.

Born May 26, 1925, in Los Angeles, Molin began his career as an apprentice in the film library at Columbia Pictures after serving in the Army during World War II. He then switched to apprentice editing at Columbia and Republic.

He launched his association with Desilu in 1951 as assistant editor on “I Love Lucy” and eventually took over as editor. Among Molin’s TV and movie credits are “The Lucy-Desi Comedy Hour,” “I Spy,” “They Call Me Mister Tibbs!” and “Bloodline.”

Molin also edited a dozen Reiner comedy films, including “Where’s Poppa?,” “Oh, God!,” “The Jerk,” “Dead Men Don’t Wear Plaid,” “All of Me” and “Fatal Instinct.”

In a recent interview with Molin and Reiner in CinemaEditor magazine, Reiner recalled that when they were editing a movie, he might giggle at a funny scene, but Molin never laughed out loud.

“He never made a sound,” Reiner said, “but I knew he was laughing because his shoulders would shake.”