Michael McCusker

Michael "Mike" McCusker (born 23 June 1966) is an American award-winning film editor. He edited the Johnny Cash biopic, Walk the Line.

McCusker was born on June 23, 1966. 

He attended New Canaan High School in New Canaan, Connecticut, where he first began writing and making films. After graduation, he attended Emerson College, Boston, Massachusetts, obtaining a bachelor of fine arts degree in film theory and production.

McCusker was mentored by film editor David Brenner. 

After graduating from Emerson College, he drove across the country to West Hollywood, California where he obtained work as a production assistant. In 1991, he served as assistant to associate producer(s) on the television series, The Simpsons.

In 1995, he was an assistant editor for the TV series Planet Rules.

McCusker became interested in film editing and became an assistant editor on a Showtime anthology called Fallen Angels.

After joining the Motion Picture Editors Guild, McCusker teamed up as an assistant film editor to one of Oliver Stone's bevy of hotshot film editors, Academy Award-winning film editor David Brenner. He quickly became Brenner's first assistant film editor, running the cutting room for five years on films such as The Patriot (2000) and Kate and Leopold (2001). Eventually, Brenner promoted McCusker to the position of associate editor.

When film director James Mangold asked editor Brenner to cut Walk the Line, Brenner was unavailable. Mangold, in need of an editor with whom he was familiar, propositioned McCusker, offering him the prestigious promotion of film editor. For his work on the film, McCusker was nominated for the Academy Award for Film Editing, his first big feature film as a film editor.

McCusker's most recent work as an editor was on Derrick Borte's 2020 action thriller Unhinged, starring Russell Crowe and Caren Pistorius.

McCusker is married to film producer Deirdre Morrison, whom he met while he was an additional editor on Roland Emmerich's sci-fi adventure The Day After Tomorrow.

As Film Editor

• Sax's Final Orbit (1997)
• Kings (1998)
• Walk the Line (Mangold-2005)
• Men in Trees (TV pilot) (2006)
• Walkout (Olmos-2006)
• 3:10 to Yuma (Mangold-2007)
• Australia (Luhrmann-2008; with Dody Dorn)
• Hesher (Susser-2010)
• Knight and Day (Mangold-2010)
• The Amazing Spider-Man (Webb-2012)
• The Wolverine (Mangold-2013)
• Get on Up (Taylor-2014)
• 13 Hours (Bay-2016)
• The Girl on the Train (Taylor-2016)
• Logan (Mangold-2017)
• Ford v. Ferrari (Mangold-2019)
• Unhinged (Borte - 2020)

As Assistant Film Editor

• Independence Day (1996) (Assistant Editor)
• Speed 2: Cruise Control (1997) (Assistant Editor)
• What Dreams May Come (1998) (Assistant Editor)
• The Patriot (2000) (First Assistant Editor)
• Kate & Leopold (2001) (First Assistant Editor)
• Identity (2003) (Associate Editor)
• The Day After Tomorrow (2004) (Associate Editor)
• Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer (2007) (additional editor)