Sidney W. Pink

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Sidney W. Pink (March 16, 1916–October 12, 2002) was an American movie director and producer. He is considered the father of color 3-D movies, and is also noted for directing early spaghetti westerns, and for discovering Dustin Hoffman as a movie actor.

He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. After playing the film producer in his high school's production of Merton of the Movies, he first realized this was the profession he would ultimately pursue, calling it his life's ambition. He worked as a projectionist in a movie theater owned by his wife's family. He received a degree in business administration from the University of Pittsburgh.

In 1952, Pink produced Bwana Devil, the first wide-released 3-D movie designed to been seen through the two-toned cardboard glasses. The film was shot using a camera with two lenses. He would go on to produce over 50 3-D movies. In 1959, he produced The Angry Red Planet, using a new development technique he named CineMagic to cast a pink coloration across the screen. In 1961, he did the original story for Reptilicus, which he co-directed and co-produced in Denmark at Saga Studios.

In 1966, he discovered the young Dustin Hoffman in an Off Broadway stage production in New York City and cast him in the lead of Madigan's Millions, which was filmed in Italy and Spain. The movie was not released until 1969, however, two years after Hoffman was introduced to the movie-going public in the 1967 movie The Graduate.

In the early 1970s Pink owned a chain of movie theaters in Puerto Rico and Florida.

He died in 2002 in Pompano Beach, Florida, following a long illness.

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