Career
Visual Effects Editor (1970-1984)
Buff's early professional career placed him at the center of Hollywood's landmark era for practical and optical special effects. Working as a visual effects editor, he accumulated credits on some of the most technically demanding productions of the period, including Battlestar Galactica (1978), The Empire Strikes Back (1980), Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Poltergeist (1982), and Return of the Jedi (1983).1 Much of this early work was connected to the major effects facilities of the era, principally Industrial Light and Magic (ILM).1
In 1984 he joined Richard Edlund's newly established operation at EEG/Boss Film Company for Ghostbusters,2 and also contributed to 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984) in the same period, as the two productions shared personnel and equipment under the EEG umbrella.2
Feature Film Editor (1985 onward)
Buff made his transition to feature film editing proper with Jagged Edge (1985), co-editing with Sean Barton under director Richard Marquand.1 From there he built one of the more varied and decorated editing careers of his generation.
His association with director James Cameron proved the most celebrated chapter of his editing work. He edited The Abyss (1989) with Joel Goodman, then earned his first Academy Award nomination for Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991, shared with Mark Goldblatt and Richard A. Harris).1 He also received an ACE Eddie nomination for True Lies (1994).1 The partnership culminated with Titanic (1997), for which Buff, Cameron, and Harris shared the Academy Award for Best Film Editing, the ACE Eddie Award for Best Edited Feature Film (Dramatic), and the Satellite Award for Best Editing.1 Titanic also brought him a BAFTA nomination for Best Editing.1
Outside the Cameron films, Buff edited Arlington Road (1999) and Mystery Men (1999), then won the Satellite Award for Best Editing a second time for Thirteen Days (2000), directed by Roger Donaldson, one of four films they made together (alongside The Getaway (1994), Species (1995), and Dante's Peak (1997)).1
Starting with Training Day (2001), Buff became the primary editor for director Antoine Fuqua, a collaboration that extended across eight films: Tears of the Sun (2003), King Arthur (2004), Shooter (2007), The Equalizer 2 (2018), Infinite (2021), Emancipation (2022), and The Equalizer 3 (2023).1 Other notable credits during this stretch include The Happening (2008) and The Last Airbender (2010) for M. Night Shyamalan, Terminator Salvation (2009), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), and Snow White and the Huntsman (2012).1
His career remains active as of 2026, with a credit on the biographical film Michael.4
Ghostbusters
Conrad Buff joined Richard Edlund at Entertainment Effects Group (EEG) as Effects Editor when the company was rapidly assembled in early 1984 to handle the visual effects for Ghostbusters. As described in a contemporaneous Starlog magazine account of the production, Buff was among the core crew Edlund recruited, joining art director John Bruno, optical supervisor Mark Vargo, effects animators Garry Waller and Terry Windell, and a dozen other specialists who relocated to Los Angeles and had less than three months to get the shop operational before a ten-month production deadline.2
EEG's scope for the film encompassed nearly 200 effects shots, including the Terror Dog stop-motion sequences, the Onionhead ghost hotel hallway sequences, the ghost containment blast, and the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man street sequence.2 As Effects Editor, Buff handled the editorial management of the effects material produced by EEG's compositing, animation, and optical departments. On the final theatrical print, he is credited as Conrad Buff (without the generational suffix).2
Buff simultaneously contributed as effects editor on 2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984), as EEG's personnel and equipment served both productions concurrently under a special arrangement between Columbia Pictures and MGM/UA.2
Personal Life
During the Ghostbusters production period, Buff's wife, Laura Buff, served as EEG's studio business manager, a role noted in the Starlog coverage of the Ghostbusters effects work.2
