Academy Award-winning editor Tom Rolf, A.C.E., has demonstrated his talent and craftsmanship repeatedly throughout an extraordinary career spanning four decades and more than 40 films.

Mr. Rolf won the Best Film Editing Oscar® for his work on director Philip Kaufman's film "The Right Stuff." He also won an American Cinema Editor's Eddie Award for John Badham's "WarGames," and received Eddie Award nominations for "The Right Stuff" and Robert Redford's "The Horse Whisperer," as well as a British Academy best editing award nomination for his work on Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver."

Ernst (Tom) Rolf was born in Stockholm, Sweden, on a New Year's Eve. Both his parents were established entertainers (his mother an actress and his father an actor, singer, and producer), so when Mr. Rolf immigrated to America, it wasn't surprising that he would end up in the entertainment field. After working as a ski patrolman and a seaman for the Norwegian Merchant Marine, as well as serving a three-year hitch in the U.S. Marines, Mr. Rolf asked his stepfather, then a successful director at MGM, how he could get started on a similar career. His stepfather's advice was to get into the cutting room: "You will learn everything about directing by being a film editor first."

Mr. Rolf became a member of the Editors Guild in the mid-fifties and spent the then-required eight years working as an apprentice and assistant editor, both in Europe and America, before getting a chance to co-edit his first film, "The Glory Guys," for United Artists.

Those beginnings led to better assignments such as "Underground," "The McKenzie Break," and "The Hunting Party." Mr. Rolf was also involved in television at that time, responsible for editing numerous segments of "Burke's Law" and "The Big Valley," plus a TV pilot entitled "The Savages." While associated with "The Big Valley," Mr. Rolf served three years as editorial coordinator of the show.

The turning point in Mr. Rolf's career was due to Martin Scorsese's "Taxi Driver" and John Frankenheimer's "French Connection II," which were released back-to-back, an experience that he attributes to "very good luck." While he considers his work on Philip Kaufman's "The Right Stuff" the most important, his favorite editing assignment was "Jacob's Ladder," directed by Adrian Lyne.

Mr. Rolf's other feature film credits include "Black Sunday," "Blue Collar," "9 1/2 Weeks," "Stakeout," "Black Rain," "Sneakers," "The Pelican Brief," "Dangerous Minds," "Heat," and "The Devil's Own." Mr. Rolf has also edited the television movie "The Executioner's Song" and the miniseries "Perfect Murder, Perfect Town," among others. Some of the other well-known directors with whom Mr. Rolf has worked include Michael Cimino, Stanley Donen, Arthur Hiller, Michael Mann,, Alan J. Pakula, Paul Schrader, and Ridley Scott.

Mr. Rolf is a past president of American Cinema Editors (ACE), and is currently finishing his ninth year as a governor of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences.