Bud S. Smith, Editor of ‘Sorcerer,’ ‘The Exorcist’ and ‘Flashdance,’ Dies at 88
Bud S. Smith, an Oscar-nominated film editor who was a regular collaborator with William Friedkin and whose other credits include “Putney Swope,” “Flashdance” and “The Karate Kid,” died Sunday at his home in Studio City, Calif. due to respiratory failure after a prolonged illness. He was 88.
Smith’s death was confirmed by his wife, dialogue editor Lucy Coldsnow-Smith.
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Over a career spanning five decades, Smith was a two-time Academy Award nominee: in 1984 for Adrian Lyne’s romance fantasia “Flashdance,” and in 1975 for William Friedkin’s horror classic “The Exorcist,” which Smith shared a nomination for with Evan A. Lottman and Norman Gay. Smith won the BAFTA award for best editing for “Flashdance” and received a career achievement award from American Cinema Editors in 2008.
After beginning in television and working under David L. Wolper in the ’60s, Smith’s first feature editing credit came at the end of the decade with Robert Downey, Sr.’s seminal satire “Putney Swope.” Smith worked with Downey on several of his early experimental films.
Smith was the primary editor for the Iraq sequences that open “The Exorcist” — a job that began a regular collaborative partnership with director Friedkin. Smith edited his 1985 crime film “To Live and Die in L.A.,” along with its borderline hallucinatory car chase showstopper, as well as the director’s 1977 survival thriller “Sorcerer,” celebrated for its sustained tension in its depiction of four truckers transporting a load of explosives in South America.
Other notable editing credits include Friedkin’s “Cruising,” the Sam Raimi breakout “Darkman,” Robert Towne’s production woe-laden “Personal Best” and the horror sequel “Poltergeist II: The Other Side.” In the ’90s, Smith worked as a film doctor and consultant, most often on the slate at Universal Pictures under exec Casey Silver.
Smith was also an associate producer on “Sorcerer” and The Karate Kid”; he was a co-producer on “To Live and Die in L.A.” and on the 1999 sci-fi thriller “Virus.” He directed the 1988 high school football comedy “Johnny Be Good,” starring Anthony Michael Hall and Robert Downey Jr., the son of Smith’s earliest artistic collaborator.
Born on Dec. 6, 1935 in Tulsa, Okla., Smith’s first credit in the industry came in 1965 for the TV film “The Bold Men.” He was diagnosed with throat cancer in 2012.
He is survived by his wife of 33 years, Lucy.
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