Anecdotes

Introduced Hollywood to the idea of editing films on the non-linear Mac based program Final Cut Pro rather than the Avid. Since then, has gone back to Avid Media Composer.

To date (2013), only artist ever to win Oscars for both film editing and sound engineering on a single film (Le patient anglais (1996)).

He believes in editing while standing up.

Murch is a beekeeper and he makes his own honey.

As of 2022, he has contributed with editing or sound department of seven films that were nominated for the Best Picture Oscar: American Graffiti (1973), Conversation secrète (1974), Le Parrain, 2ᵉ partie (1974), Apocalypse Now (1979), Le Parrain, 3e partie (1990), Ghost (1990) and Le patient anglais (1996). Of those, Le Parrain, 2ᵉ partie (1974) and Le patient anglais (1996) are winners in the category.

Murch has visited several times ENERC in Buenos Aires, one of the most prestigious film schools in Latin America, to meet the students and give a master class.

Musique concrète, the French school that made music out of everyday sounds by manipulating them on magnetic tape, was an early influence.

Son of Canadian painter, Walter Tandy Murch (August 17, 1907 - December 11, 1967). His first one-man show was in 1941 at Wakefield Gallery in New York. Murch regularly mounted solo exhibitions every two years until his death in 1967. By 1950, he also taught at Pratt Institute and later at New York University, Columbia University and Boston University.

Father of Walter Slater Murch, Carrie Angland and Connie Angland. Also has a daughter named Beatrice Murch.

Father-in-law of actor-director Billy Bob Thornton.

He and Francis Ford Coppola played significant roles in creating the 5.1 surround sound format with Dolby for Apocalypse Now (1979). Coppola and Murch used Dolby's Stereo 70 mm Six Track system but came up with the innovative idea of splitting the surround channels to create a wider soundscape for the film's helicopter sequences.