Richard Mettler Dies: ‘Desert Warrior’, ‘Anthropoid’ Film Editor Was 56

Richard Mettler, a film editor whose credits included Anthropoid (2016) starring Jamie Dornan and Cillian Murphy and the 2025 historical drama Desert Warrior starring Anthony Mackie, died June 1 at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York City following an eight-year battle with cancer. He was 56.

After beginning his career editing music videos, including, in 2013, “Mine” by Beyoncé featuring Drake, Mettler pivoted to feature films, including, that same year, Metro Manila, an independent crime drama that won the Sundance World Cinema Audience Award. The project was the start of a long-standing partnership with filmmaker Sean Ellis.

In 2016, Mettler was the editor on Anthropoid, which earned him a Czech Lion Award nomination for Best Editing. In 2020 he edited The Secrets We Keep, a post-WWII psychological drama directed by Yuval Adler starring Noomi Rapace and Joel Kinnaman.

The following year brought The Cursed, a gothic horror-thriller (originally titled Eight for Silver) that reunited him with director Ellis. In 2023, he was the editor on I.S.S., a sci-fi thriller directed by Gabriela Cowperthwaite about astronauts aboard the International Space Station when a global conflict erupts on Earth.

On director Rupert Wyatt’s Desert Warrior (2025), Mettler was the lead film editor, splinter unit director and associate producer.

The son of Luc Mettler, who owned an influential Parisian music shop, Mettler relocated to New York in the early 1990s, landing a job as assistant at Back Pocket recording studio. He would also work on fashion and commercial advertising spots for such luxury brands as Dior, Calvin Klein, Samsung and Cartier.

“Richard never let his illness define him,” said director Wyatt. “He cared more deeply about his family and friends than his own condition, and with a love of life he believed he would beat it. And in many ways he did. He told me once that he had taught himself how not to be afraid: Of being alone; of whatever death might bring…And he said it was getting ill that changed his way of thinking for the better. And living.”

Wyatt added, “Those of us fortunate enough to have known him, learn from him, and love him, can now scan the stars and picture him up there exploring further still.”

Mettler is survived by his son Oscar Mettler and his mother Rachel Belma.