Ernest Pintoff(1931-2002)
- Director
- Music Department
- Producer
Ernest Pintoff won the Oscar for best animated short for
The Critic (1963), a satire on modern
art written and narrated by
Mel Brooks. Pintoff previously earned
an Oscar nomination for his animated short
The Violinist (1959), narrated by
Carl Reiner. For television Pintoff directed
episodes of numerous series, including
Hawaii police d'état (1968),
L'homme qui valait 3 milliards (1974)
and Falcon Crest (1981). As part
of NBC's "Experiments in Television" in the late 1960s, he directed the
documentaries "This Is Marshall McLuhan" and "This Is Sholem Aleichem."
Among Pintoff's feature credits as a director are the low-budget
Who Killed Mary Whats'ername? (1971),
starring Red Buttons, and
Dynamite Chicken (1971), a
collection of songs, skits, commercial parodies and old movie clips
with appearances by Richard Pryor,
John Lennon,
Andy Warhol and other celebrities. He taught
directing at the School of Visual Arts, the American Film Institute,
the California Institute of the Arts and UCLA, and received the
International Animated Film Society's Winsor McCay Award for
distinguished lifetime contributions to the art of animation in 1998.
Born in Watertown, CT, and raised in New York City, Pintoff originally was a jazz trumpeter and later taught painting and design at Michigan State University. He began his animation career in 1956. After suffering a stroke in 1983, he turned to writing books, including a memoir ("Bolt From the Blue"), a novel ("Zachary") and animation textbooks.
He died from complications of a stroke on January 12, 2002, in Woodland Hills, CA. He is survived by his wife, Caroline; son Jonathan of Los Angeles; daughter Gabrielle Stornaiuolo of San Francisco; and three grandsons.
Born in Watertown, CT, and raised in New York City, Pintoff originally was a jazz trumpeter and later taught painting and design at Michigan State University. He began his animation career in 1956. After suffering a stroke in 1983, he turned to writing books, including a memoir ("Bolt From the Blue"), a novel ("Zachary") and animation textbooks.
He died from complications of a stroke on January 12, 2002, in Woodland Hills, CA. He is survived by his wife, Caroline; son Jonathan of Los Angeles; daughter Gabrielle Stornaiuolo of San Francisco; and three grandsons.
