Film Editor Bud S. Smith Passes On

Bud S. Smith, the film editor who was nominated for the Academy Award for editing for The Exorcist
(1973) Evan A. Lottman & Norman Gay and was nominated for the Academy Award for editing for Flashdance (1983), died on June 23 2024 at the age of 88. The cause was respiratory failure after a prolonged illness.

Bud S. Smith was born on December 6 1935 in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He began his career in television as part of the editorial department of the documentary television series Hollywood and the Stars. He was also part of the editorial department of the documentary TV movie Pro Football: Mayhem on a Sunday Afternoon. In the Sixties he was the editor on the documentary TV movie The Bold Men (1965). He edited the TV specials The Incredible World of James Bond, Lucy in London, and Petula. He also edited the documentary TV movies Prelude to War: Beginning of World War II and The Big Land. He edited both episodes of Time-Life Specials: The March of Time and National Geographic Specials. He directed an episode of Dundee and the Culhane. The first feature film on which he was an editor was Putney Swope in 1969. He edited Pound 1970.

In the Seventies he served as an editor on the feature films Greaser's Palace (1972), Rhinoceros (1974), Sorcerer (1977), The Brink's Job (1978), Cruising (1980), and Falling in Love Again (1980). For television he edited the documentary TV movie Tribute to Bogart and the TV movie A Death in Canaan. He was on the editorial department of the feature film The Exorcist (1977).

In the Eighties he edited the movies Personal Best (1982), Flashdance (1983), Deal of the Century (1983), The Karate Kid (1984), Poltergeist II: The Other Side (1986), Some Kind of Wonderful (1987), Sing (1989), and Dark Man (1990). He was the supervising film editor on the films Zoot Suit (1981), Cat People (1982), and To Live and Die in L.A. (1985).

He edited the movie The Replacements (2000) and served as post-production advisor on Christina's House (2000). In the Naughts he edited the movies Young Black Stallion (2003), Ladder 49 (2004), and The Game of Their Lives (2005). He was an editorial consultant on the movie G-Foce (2009) and and an assistant editor on the short "Where's Barry?" (2014).

He also served as a second unit director or assistant director on the movies Sorcerer, Cat People, To Live and Die in L.A., Stop! Or My Mom Will Shoot (1992), Virus (1999), and Driftwood (2006). He was a second unit director on the movie C.A.T. Squad. He was a producer on the movies Sorcerer, The Karate Kid (1984), To Live and Die in L.A., Virus, Driftwood, Lonely Street (2008), The Mighty Macs (2009), Alone Yet Not Alone (2013), and the short "Where's Barry?".