Elena Maganini: key obituary facts
Is Elena Maganini dead? Yes. Elena Maganini died on October 21, 2026, at age 70.
Cause of death: Elena Maganini's cause of death was reported as Cancer.
What was Elena Maganini known for?
She was an American film editor.
More about Elena Maganini
Born: 1901.
Gender: female.
Occupation: film editor.
Elena Maganini, an American film and television editor known for Dexter, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer and Wild Things, died of breast cancer on October 21, 2026, aged 70.
Born in Chicago, she graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign and studied film at Columbia College Chicago. She began her career editing commercials for Sinnot & Associates in Chicago before moving into feature work with Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.
On that film, she served as both editor and sound editor. The project also began a working relationship with director John McNaughton that continued across a series of later projects, some of which explored themes of sexuality. Maganini’s film credits included Wild Things, while her television work included the first season of Showtime’s Dexter, for which she was best known. Her career took her from commercial editing in Chicago to feature films and television, and her early feature work combined picture editing with sound editing. Her education in film and her experience in Chicago commercials preceded the feature-film collaboration that became a continuing part of her work. Across those projects, she worked in both film and television, with Dexter marking a prominent television credit.