Paul Apted, ‘Fault in Our Stars’ Sound Editor, Ironically Loses Cancer Battle


Paul Apted, sound editor of the popular romantic movie The Fault in Our Stars, died on Friday at the age of 47.

Before you quickly add Paul’s death to the growing list of other celebrity deaths from 2014 alone, take a moment to appreciate the irony behind it and what it can teach us all. For those not familiar with The Fault in Our Stars, the story focuses on two terminally ill cancer patients — Hazel Grace Lancaster and Augustus Waters — who fall in love. The movie was actually adapted from a New York Times bestselling novel written by John Green of the same title. How this story ironically connects to Paul Apted is that he was also a terminally ill cancer patient. You see, Paul Apted lost a long battle to colon cancer, according to Variety.

You may not have heard very much about Paul Apted in the past. He truly was not one that spent a lot of time basking in the glow of the Hollywood spotlight. He was primarily known for the work that he did with his father, critically acclaimed movie director Michael Apted. The father-son duo collaborated on such memorable films as Nell and Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader. You can hear Paul’s work in quite a few of the action-packed movies that have been released fairly recently, such as The Wolverine and A Good Day to Die Hard.

It is also pretty ironic that a man known professionally for working with sounds lived a quiet life with his wife, Gemma, and their two children, Thomas and Rose.

No one got a chance to conduct an interview with Paul Apted before he died about why he enjoyed working behind the scenes of The Fault in Our Stars. Perhaps he saw a lot of himself in the life and love of Augustus Waters. Paul Apted was more than likely profoundly excited when the movie took the #1 spot in the US box office during its opening weekend, according to Deadline. However, even if the movie did not perform well, his excitement would have still remained intact. Why? Because this was much more than just another film to add to his impressive resume for Paul Apted. This was a passion project for him. Something that he could personally connect to for more reasons than most people even realized until it was already too late. The fact that this story was able to make it to the big screen at all was a triumph for Paul and he likely made sure that it was one of the best works of his career.

Sadly, Paul Apted lost his battle to colon cancer on Friday. But his work in The Fault in Our Stars will continue to inspire millions of other cancer patients (and everyone else for that matter) to keep fighting.

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