Ernest Pintoff

Biography

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. He won the Oscar for Best Animated Short for The Critic (1963), a satire on modern art written and narrated by Mel Brooks. Born 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. His 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 and illustrated a promising young career in directing film ahead of him. In 1964, he won an Oscar for his direction of the 1963 film, The Critic, which was narrated by co-creator Mel Brooks and focused on a man with a grumpy voice trying to understand abstractions he observes. On television, Pintoff directed many episodes of popular television series, including Hawaii Five-O (1968), Kojak (1968), …

Directed

1. MacGyver (1985) — Director
2. The Six Million Dollar Man (1974) — Director
3. The Bionic Woman (1976) — Director
4. Hawaii Five-O (1968) — Director
5. Kojak (1973) — Director
6. Voyagers! (1982) — Director
7. Falcon Crest (1981) — Director
8. Knots Landing (1979) — Director
9. Ellery Queen (1975) — Director
10. The Critic (1963) — Director
11. The White Shadow (1978) — Director
12. Jaguar Lives! (1979) — Director
13. Blade (1973) — Director
14. St. Helens (1982) — Director
15. Dynamite Chicken (1971) — Director
16. Lunch Wagon (1981) — Director
17. Weekend Special (1977) — Director
18. Who Killed Mary Whats'ername? (1971) — Director
19. Movin' On (1974) — Director
20. James at 16 (1977) — Director
21. The Violinist (1959) — Director
22. Harvey Middleman, Fireman (1965) — Director
23. Emerald Point N.A.S. (1983) — Director
24. Occasional Wife (1966) — Director
25. Call to Glory (1984) — Director
26. Code Red (1981) — Director
27. This Is Marshall McLuhan: The Medium Is The Massage (1967) — Director
28. Big Hawaii (1977) — Director
29. Spencer's Pilots (1976) — Director
30. Hell Town (1985) — Director
31. Flebus (1957) — Director
32. The Interview (1960) — Director
33. Human Feelings (1978) — Director
34. The Gerald McBoing-Boing Show (1956) — Director
35. The Old Man and the Flower (1962) — Director
36. Fight On For Old (1956) — Director
37. Blues Pattern (1956) — Director
38. $weepstake$ (1979) — Director
39. The Feather And Father Gang (1977) — Director