After his father's death in 1932, Tutta married American director and choreographer Jack Donohue, who advised the young Ernst to go into film editing.
When Levy-Gardner-Laven began production on the Western television series The Big Valley, they brought in Rolf to serve as one of the editors of the show.
Rolf worked on a few more Levy-Gardner-Laven productions, including the 1970 releases Underground (which, like Clambake, was directed by Arthur H. Nadel) and The McKenzie Break.
The latter was the first of four films Rolf would edit for director Lamont Johnson; their subsequent collaborations were The Last American Hero (1973), Visit to a Chief's Son (1974) and the 1975 TV movie Fear on Trial.
The turning point in Rolf's career came in 1975 when he and Melvin Shapiro were recruited by director Martin Scorsese to edit his crime drama Taxi Driver.
After co-editing Michael Cimino's infamous box office flop Heaven's Gate, Rolf joined the editing team of Philip Kaufman's space race drama The Right Stuff.
The film was a critical (if not commercial) success and picked up four Academy Awards, including Best Editing for Rolf and his fellow editors, Glenn Farr, Lisa Fruchtman, Stephen A. Rotter and Douglas Stewart.
"[6] Rolf also edited or co-edited two films each for Douglas Day Stewart (Thief of Hearts and Quicksilver) and Alan J. Pakula (The Pelican Brief and The Devil's Own).
Other notable films which were edited or co-edited by Rolf include Ridley Scott's Black Rain (1989), Michael Mann's Heat (1995), Robert Redford's The Horse Whisperer (1998), John Woo's Windtalkers and Kurt Wimmer's Equilibrium (both 2002).