ANNE V. COATES was born in Reigate, Surrey, England. Her first love was ballet, which later turned to horses, setting her sights on being a race horse trainer. Then she fell in love with movies, and after a short time as a nurse, she managed to get a job in religious films. She worked as a projectionist, sound assistant and began sending films out to churches, and repairing them on their return the old way – with scrapers and glue!
Coates finally managed to get a job as an assistant in the cutting rooms at Pinewood Studios by slightly exaggerating her experience. After working for a few years as an assistant editor, she got a big break on cutting all the second unit sequences on Walt Disney’s Robin Hood, and soon after that, she was offered the job on Picwick Papers as editor.
Among the films she edited in England are The Truth About Women, The Horse’s Mouth, Tunes of Glory, Lawrence of Arabia (for which she received an Academy Award®, an A.C.E. nomination, and other various awards), Becket, (for which she received an Academy Award® nomination and an A.C.E. nomination), Young Cassidy, The Bofors Gun, The Eagle Has Landed, Murder on the Orient Express (for which she received a BAFTA nomination), The Elephant Man (for which she received an Academy Award® nomination, an A.C.E. Award nomination and a BAFTA nomination), Greystoke - The Story of Tarzan and the Apes, Ragtime, and Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines. She produced and edited Medusa Touch. She also worked with David Lean as an editorial consultant on the 1989 restoration of Lawrence of Arabia.
Coates moved to Los Angeles in 1986 where she continued editing such films as: Raw Deal, Master of the Universe, I Love You to Death, What About Bob?, Chaplin, In the Line of Fire (for which she won the British Editors Society Award and received an Academy Award® nomination, an A.C.E. nomination and a BAFTA nomination), Congo, Out to Sea, Out of Sight (for which she received an Academy Award® nomination and A.C.E. nomination), Passion of Mind, Erin Brockovich (for which she received a BAFTA nomination), Sweet November, Taking Lives, Catch and Release, The Golden Compass, Extraordinary Measures, and most recently, Fifty Shades of Grey.
Coates was awarded the A.C.E. Career Achievement Award in 1995, The Women in Film Crystal Life Achievement Award in 1997 and the Women in Film Channel 4 Lifetime Achievement Award in 2001.
Coates was married to the late director Douglas Hickox. Her sons Anthony and James are directors, and her daughter Emma is an editor. In 2005, Coates was honored with the Order of the British Empire and, in 2007, was a BAFTA Academy Fellow recipient.