From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Emile Ardolino (May 9, 1943 in Maspeth, New York – November 20, 1993) was
an award-winning American film director and producer, best known
for making films which feature dancing and song such as Dirty Dancing
(1987) and Sister
Act (1992).
Biography
Emile Ardolino, son of Italian immigrants Emilio and
Ester Ardolino, was born in a neighborhood of Queens. His father –
who at the time of Emile's birth was 54 years old – died in 1949,
when Emile was 6 years old.
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.
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'
Filmography (partial)
References
External
links
| Films directed by Emile Ardolino |
|
| 1980s |
|
|
| 1990s |
|
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