Robert J. Kern

{{Short description|American film editor (1885–1972)}}

{{redirect|Robert Kern|the American engineer and entrepreneur|Robert Henry Kern}}

{{Infobox person

| name = Robert J. Kern

| birth_date = March 29, 1885

| death_date = May 30, 1972

| occupation = Film editor

}}

Robert James Kern (March 29, 1885 – May 30, 1972) was an American film editor with more than sixty feature film credits.{{IMDB name|0449493}} He is known for editing National Velvet (1944), which won him the Academy Award for Best Film Editing.{{cite book|last=Reid|first=John|title=Movies Magnificent: 150 Must-See Cinema Classics|date=September 2005 |isbn=1411650670|page=112}} National Velvet was one of thirteen films that Kern edited with director Clarence Brown. He also made seven films with director W. S. Van Dyke, including three of the Thin Man series. Kern was nominated for the Academy Award for David Copperfield (1935), which was directed by George Cukor.

His brother, Hal C. Kern, was also a film editor. As of 2017, they are the only instance of two brothers both winning an Academy Award for Best Editing. Hal Kern won for Gone with the Wind (1939).{{cite news |title=Multiple Oscar Winners |work=Editors Guild Magazine |volume=1 |issue=1 |date=January–February 2012 |first=Kevin |last=Lewis |url=https://www.editorsguild.com/magazine.cfm?ArticleID=1056 |access-date=2017-04-16}}