Biography
Ernest Pintoff (15 December 1931 – 12 January 2002) was an American film and television director, screenwriter and producer. Born in Watertown, Connecticut and raised in New York City, he began his career as a jazz trumpeter and taught painting and design at Michigan State University before entering animation in the mid-1950s.
Pintoff directed the animated shorts The Violinist (1959), narrated by Carl Reiner, which received an Academy Award nomination, and The Critic (1963), written and narrated by Mel Brooks, for which he won the Oscar for Best Animated Short Subject. He later moved into live-action features, including Harvey Middleman, Fireman (1965), and directed episodes of numerous television series.
His television credits include episodes of Hawaii Five-O (1968), Kojak (1973), The Six Million Dollar Man (1974), Falcon Crest (1981), Knots Landing (1979) and MacGyver (1985). He received the Winsor McCay Award in 1998 for lifetime contributions to animation.
