Meyer Ackerman, whose movie theaters brought hard-to-find films to audiences in and around New York City in the decades before home video and the internet made hidden cinematic gems easier to access, died on Oct. 21 in White Plains, N.Y. He was 96 .

His son Brian said the cause was a heart attack.

Beginning in the early 1950s Mr. Ackerman, generally with business partners, operated theaters in the Bronx, Manhattan, Staten Island and various suburbs . Some were standard commercial theaters, but he was beloved among cinephiles for the houses, most of them single-screen, that showed foreign films, independent films, quirky films, films too controversial for the mainstream.

Perhaps chief among these was the 68th Street Playhouse on Third Avenue in Manhattan, which he acquired in 1969. He built its reputation as a destination for movie lovers, as he had already done for the Carnegie Hall Cinema on Seventh Avenue, which he and two partners opened in 1961.