Velvet Goldmine author and editor, Jim Lyons, Dies

As fellow Velvet Goldmine fans, I thought you'd like to know that James Lyons died last week. Here is the NY Times Obituary behind the cut. Just as important as his editing work, it was Jim who came up with the idea for Velvet Goldmine and is credited as the story writer.

James Lyons, 46, Film Editor and Actor, Dies

The New York Times
By EDWARD WYATT
Published: April 16, 2007

James Lyons, a film editor whose most notable collaborations were with the director Todd Haynes on several feature films, including “Safe,” “Velvet Goldmine” and “Far From Heaven,” died Thursday in Manhattan. He was 46 and lived in Brooklyn Heights.

The cause was squamous cell cancer, which followed more than a decade of treatment for H.I.V., his brother Patrick said.

Mr. Lyons, often billed as Jim, gained notice for both his acting in and editing of “Poison,” Mr. Haynes’s 1991 triptych, which won the grand jury prize at the 1991 Sundance Film Festival.

Mr. Lyons acted in several other films, including “Postcards From America” (1994), in which he played the artist David Wojnarowicz, an advocate for AIDS awareness. But it was as an editor that he primarily identified himself; among his other editing projects was Sofia Coppola’s 1999 film, “The Virgin Suicides.”

A member of Act Up, the AIDS awareness organization, in the 1990s, Mr. Lyons said he saw film as a medium to spread awareness of the disease. At his death, he was preparing to direct a short film about Andy Warhol.

Mr. Lyons is survived by his partner, Terrence Savage of Brooklyn Heights; his mother, Gladys M. Lyons of Port Jefferson Station on Long Island; four brothers, Patrick, of Port Washington, N.Y., an editor in the continuous news department at The New York Times, Timothy, of Port Jefferson Station, Thomas, of East Longmeadow, Mass., and John, of Pleasanton, Calif.; and a sister, Claire M. Roff of Massapequa Park, N.Y.