Life and career[edit]

Buff was born in Los Angeles, the son of architect Conrad Buff III,^[2] and the grandson of children's book creators Mary and Conrad Buff (painter Conrad Buff II). He attended Eagle Rock High School in Los Angeles and Pasadena City College for two years before joining the U. S. Navy. Buff learned film editing while working for the Navy's Motion Picture Office in Hollywood.^[3] In the first phase of his civilian career Buff was the "visual effects editor" on several successful films, ranging from The Empire Strikes Back (1980) through Ghostbusters (1984). Buff was an assistant editor on Return of the Jedi (1983); he worked with editor Sean Barton and director Richard Marquand. His first editing credit was as the co-editor with Barton for Jagged Edge (1985), which was also directed by Marquand.


Buff is noted particularly for his editing of four films directed by James Cameron, including Titanic. Buff edited The Abyss (1989) with Joel Goodman. Buff was nominated for an Oscar and an Eddie for the editing of Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991 - with Mark Goldblatt and Richard A. Harris). He was again nominated for an Eddie for True Lies (1994) (also with Goldblatt and Harris). In addition to its actual awards, Titanic was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Editing.


Buff has edited four films with director Roger Donaldson: The Getaway (1994), Species (1995), Dante's Peak (1997; co-edited with Tina Hirsch and Howard Smith), and Thirteen Days (2000), which won the Satellite Award for Best Editing.


Since Thirteen Days, Buff has edited eight films directed by Antoine Fuqua: Training Day (2001), Tears of the Sun (2003), King Arthur (2004; with Jamie Pearson), Shooter (2007; with Eric Sears), The Equalizer 2 (2018), Infinite (2021), Emancipation (2022), and The Equalizer 3 (2023).


Buff has been elected to membership in the American Cinema Editors.^[4]