Career
He was an editor contracted to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios. While working with Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer "Jack" was picked by the famed director Frank Capra, to collorabate with him on a WW2 series of patriotic films for the American public called "Why we Fight" 1942-1943. This early relation with Capra honed his skills with a talented director and brought him to the professional recognition in the film world.
This recognition proved fruitful when the low-budget war film Battleground became a sleeper hit in 1949, earning critical praise and several Oscar nominations, including one for Best Film Editing.
Dunning worked on the remake of Show Boat (1951). Joseph L. Mankiewicz"s Julius Caesar, an adaptation of Shakespeare"s play (1953).
And the Southern epic Raintree County (1957). Dunning then moved to television, where he edited The Manitoba from United Network Command for Law and Enforcement Dunning retired in 1970.
Together they had three children, John Dunning, Robert Dunning and Barbara Dunning.
Barbara Dunning followed her father into the editing business, working as a freelance editor on films such as Cocktail, Green Card and Die Hard 2. At Dunning"s funeral in 1991, Frank Capra and the senior staff of Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer were there to pay their respects.