Ernest Pintoff (December 15, 1931 in Watertown, Connecticut – January 12, 2002 in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles) was an American film and television director, screenwriter and film producer.[1]
Ernest Pintoff | |
|---|---|
| Born | December 15, 1931 |
| Died | 12 January 2002 (aged 70) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, animator |
He won the Oscar for Best Animated Short for The Critic (1963), a satire on modern art written and narrated by Mel Brooks.[2]
Background
editBorn in Watertown, Connecticut, but raised in New York City, Pintoff originally began as a jazz trumpeter who taught painting and design at Michigan State University. However, he had always shown an interest in the animation of film and began writing in 1956.
Career
editHis career took off in 1957, when he wrote the script for Flebus, followed by 1959 as a producer and director for the animated short film, The Violinist. Narrated by Carl Reiner, the film earned Pintoff an Oscar nomination[3] and illustrated a promising young career in directing film ahead of him.[4]
In 1964, he won an Oscar for his direction of the 1963 film, The Critic,[5] which was narrated by co-creator Mel Brooks and focused on a man with a grumpy voice trying to understand abstractions he observes.[6]
On television, Pintoff directed many episodes of popular television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Kojak (1968), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), The Dukes of Hazard (1979), Falcon Crest (1981) and Voyagers! (1982). As part of NBC's "Experiments in Television" in the late 1960s, he also directed the documentaries This Is Marshall McLuhan and This Is Sholem Aleichem.
Pintoff produced and directed a number of low-budget independent films such as Harvey Middleman, Fireman (1965), Who Killed Mary What's 'Er Name? (1971) and Dynamite Chicken (1972), a film using a collection of old clips from music with appearances by John Lennon, Richard Pryor and Andy Warhol,[7] Nel mirino del giaguaro (1979).
Following his last film in 1985, Pintoff taught directing at the School of Visual Arts, American Film Institute, USC School of Cinematic Arts, California Institute of the Arts and UCLA.
He received the International Animated Film Society's Winsor McCay Award for prolific lifetime contributions to animation in 1998.
Health
editAfter suffering a stroke in 1985, Pintoff retired from film and turned to writing books, including a memoir, Bolt From the Blue and a novel, Zachary and further books on his love of animation. His health declined again in 2001 and he died of a stroke on January 12, 2002.
Personal life
editPintoff was married to Caroline Pintoff and had two children and three grandchildren.[citation needed]
Selected filmography
edit- Flebus (1957)
- The Violinist (1959)[8] – Best Animated Short Academy Award nomination
- The Interview (1960) [9]
- The Old Man and The Flower (1962) [10]
- The Critic (1963) – Winner of Best Animated Short Academy Award
- Blade (1973)
- Jaguar Lives! (1979)
References
edit- ^ "Ernest Pintoff, 70, Director Who Won an Oscar for Animated Film". The New York Times. February 4, 2002. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
- ^ "Obituaries; Ernest Pintoff, 70; Animator Won Oscar". Los Angeles Times. February 7, 2002. Retrieved 2011-01-22.
- ^ "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1959 -". cartoonresearch.com.
- ^ 'The Critic': Animation at Its Most Pretentious - Animation Obsessive
- ^ "The 36st Academy Awards". The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. Retrieved January 15, 2024.
- ^ Watch The Critic: The Oscar-Winning, Animated Film Narrated by Mel Brooks (1963)|Open Culture
- ^ Weiler, A. H. (January 4, 1972). "Dynamite Chicken (1970) 'Dynamite Chicken' Is Aimed at the Young". The New York Times.
- ^ "MoMA | An Auteurist History of Film: Independent Animation, 1947–60". www.moma.org.
- ^ "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1960 -". cartoonresearch.com.
- ^ "Cartoons Considered For An Academy Award – 1962 -". cartoonresearch.com.