Emile Ardolino

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Emile Ardolino (born May 9, 1943 in Maspeth, New York; died November 20, 1993) was an award-winning American film director and producer, best known for making films which featuring dancing and song such as Dirty Dancing (1987) and Sister Act (1992).

Contents

[edit] Biography

Emile Ardolino, son of Italian immigrants Emilio and Ester Ardolino, was born in a suburb of Queens. His father, who at the time of Emile's birth was 54 years old, died in 1949.

He began his career as an actor in off-Broadway productions, but soon moved to the production side of the business. In 1967, he founded Compton-Ardolino Films with Gardner Compton. [1] In the 1970s and 1980s Ardolino worked for PBS; his profiles of dancers and choreographers for their Dance in America and Live from Lincoln Center series won him a total of 17 Emmy Awards.

Ardolino won an Academy Award for Best Documentary for the 1983 movie He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin'. He found commercial success with the 1987 sleeper hit Dirty Dancing, and went on to make several other mainstream films.

Ardolino, who lived openly gay, died in 1993 of complications from AIDS. He was buried in New York next to his parents, his mother having died in 1975. His last films, The Nutcracker, (based on George Balanchine's New York City Ballet version), and the television production of Gypsy: A Musical Fable, were released and shown posthumously.

[edit] Awards

  • 1969 Obie Award, for film for the Broadway production of Oh! Calcutta!
  • 17 Emmy Awards Nomination and 1 winning
  • 1983 Academy Award, Best Documentary Feature, He Makes Me Feel Like Dancin'

[edit] Filmography (partial)

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Emile Ardolino, Director, Is Dead; Specialist in Dance Films Was 50", Obituary, New York Times, November 22, 1993, p. B12. 

[edit] External links

 This article about a United States film director is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.