Born in New York City. Rose's career began in a film class at Hunter College in New York. When the professor realized that Kay knew more about film history than she did, she let her teach the class. In 1942, Rose was hired by the Signal Corps as a film apprentice and worked on training films like the classic, "How to Erect a Double Apron Barbed Wire Fence" and documentaries like John Huston's REPORT FROM THE ALEUTIANS. She started on a Tuesday morning and didn't come home until Friday night. This was her introduction to movie-making. She left the Signal Corps and came to Hollywood in 1944. In 1951, she married film editor Sherman Rose, and together they produced what is now considered a sci-fi cult classic, TARGET EARTH (1954). Sherman directed and edited and Kay cut the sound. They were the first to create an educational children's television series in the 50s, with folksingers Marais and Miranda. They shared a soundstage with Orson Welles, who was shooting a little (never-released) film on his own, which Kay and Sherman then edited. When they divorced, Kay resumed full-time work. Rose's approach to sound editing was always through story. "The story dictates what you do to it," was her mantra. It was her caring about the total filmmaking process that attracted her to the directors she worked with: Sydney Pollack, Peter Bogdanovich, Robert Altman, Gene Kelly, Michael Ritchie, Martin Scorcese, Alan Pakula, Blake Edwards, Richard Brooks, Robert Redford, Barbra Streisand, Haskell Wexler, Robert Towne, Carl Reiner and Mark Rydell. It was her work on a Rydell film, THE RIVER, that earned her an Oscar® for Achievement in Sound Editing, making her the first woman to be so honored. She served on the Board of Governors of the Academy from 1987 to 1993 and was chairperson of the Sound Effects Editing Award Committee. In addition to her Oscar, she won Best Sound Editing for THE RIVER from the Motion Picture Sound Editors. In 1994, she was honored with the MPSE's Lifetime Achievement Award. Other notable credits include TARGET EARTH (1954), I WAS A TEENAGE FRANKENSTEIN and BLOOD OF DRACULA (both 1957), THE FLAME BARRIER (1958), A LUST TO KILL (1959), ANGEL BABY and PIT AND THE PENDULUM (both 1961), HERO ISLAND (1962), THE COMEDY OF TERRORS, MUSCLE BEACH PARTY and BIKINI BEACH (all 1964), THE PROFESSIONALS (1966), THE FOX (1968), MEDIUM COOL (1969), WHERE'S POPPA? (1970), THE STEAGLE (1971), THE COWBOYS (1972), PAPER MOON, THE WAY WE WERE and CINDERELLA LIBERTY (all 1973), CALIFORNIA SPLIT (1974), BITE THE BULLET (1975), HARRY AND WALTER TO GO TO NEW YORK and NICKELODEON (both 1976), LOOKING FOR MR. GOODBAR and NEW YORK, NEW YORK (both 1977), COMES A HORSEMAN (1978), THE ROSE (1979), ORDINARY PEOPLE (1980), ON GOLDEN POND (1981), WRONG IS RIGHT and FRANCES (both 1982), THE SURVIVORS (1983), ALL OF ME, CANNONBALL RUN II and THE RIVER (all 1984), VIOLETS ARE BLUE... and CRIMES OF THE HEART (both 1986), THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR and TEQUILA SUNRISE (both 1988), THE KARATE KID, PART III and BLACK RAIN (both 1989), ROBOCOP 2 and SIBLING RIVALRY (both 1990), QUEEN'S LOGIC, FOR THE BOYS, SWITCH and THE PRINCE OF TIDES (all 1991), SON OF THE PINK PANTHER (1993), and INTERSECTION and SPEED (both 1994). In October 2002, George Lucas and Steven Spielberg endowed the Kay Rose Chair in the Art of Sound and Dialogue Editing at the School of Cinema-Television, University of Southern California. Rose's daughter is dialogue/adr editor and filmmaker Victoria Rose Sampson.  Special Achievement Award 1984: Sound Effects Editing - THE RIVER 1 Special Achievement Award