At the start of his career, Rolf spent a then-required eight years serving as an apprentice and assistant editor. One of Rolf's earliest jobs as an editor was the 1959 Swedish-American co-production Space Invasion of Lapland. Among the films he worked on as an assistant editor was Levy-Gardner-Laven's 1962 Western Geronimo. Levy-Gardner-Laven later made Rolf one of the head editors of their 1965 Western, The Glory Guys; Rolf's editing partner on this film was Melvin Shapiro, with whom Rolf would work again on Taxi Driver over ten years later.
