Herbert Ross
About
Biography
Filmography
Family & Companions
Notes
Ross received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Cancer Society in 1993.
Ross has directed 12 actors to Oscar nominations with three, George Burns, Maggie Smith and Richard Dreyfuss winning the award.
Biography
Choreographer-director-producer Herbert Ross was best known for elevating the role of dance in film and for his ability to elicit exceptional performances out of such leading ladies as Barbara Streisand, Shirley MacLaine, Anne Bancroft and Julia Roberts. Receiving his start as a Broadway performer and choreographer with the American Ballet Theater, Ross later staged dozens of musical sequences for such films as "Carmen Jones" (1954). Although he was one of Broadway's top choreographers - notably crafting Streisand's show-stopping number in 1963's "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" - Ross yearned to direct films, a goal he achieved with "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969). He began to hit his stride as a director alongside rising megastars like Streisand in "The Owl and the Pussycat" (1970) and Woody Allen in "Play it Again, Sam" (1972). Shortly thereafter, he began his prolific working relationship with playwright Neil Simon on "The Sunshine Boys" (1975). At the height of his career, Ross utilized his knowledge of ballet for "The Turning Point" (1977) and reteamed with Simon on "The Goodbye Girl" (1977) to win both critical acclaim and box office gold. Less successful were risky endeavors like the Depression-era Steve Martin musical-fantasy "Pennies from Heaven" (1981). Ross still had a few more cards up his sleeve, though, as the hits "Footloose" (1984) and "Steel Magnolias" (1989) triumphantly capped off a remarkable career. Whether crafting a spectacular dance number or directing a heartfelt romance, Ross' sole ambition to entertain an audience was unwavering.
Born Herbert David Ross on May 13, 1927 in Brooklyn, NY, he was the son of Louis Chester Ross, a postal clerk, and Martha Ross. Ross lost his mother when he was just nine years old, a tragedy that prompted his newly-widowed father to relocate to Florida shortly afterward. Even as a young boy, Ross found solace and freedom in performing for the public. During summer break from his Miami high school, he told his father that he would be staying with friends in New York City, only to surreptitiously travel with a theater company and tour the South. Upon his return home, the emboldened teen informed his father that he was dropping out of school to pursue a theater career. A heated argument ensued, followed by the younger Ross' departure. Tragically, his father died of a heart attack later that night. Returning to New York, Ross supported himself with a series of odd jobs and modeling work until a friend invited him to attend a performance by the renowned Ballet Russe. Transfixed by what he saw on stage that night, he immediately set his sights on becoming a dancer.
In the mid-1940s, Ross began his career as a dancer in several Broadway musicals, including "Something for the Boys" and "Laffing Room Only." After creating his own ballet production, "Caprichos" - inspired by the paintings of Goya - in 1950, Ross began his professional career as a choreographer with the American Ballet Theatre. The following year, he choreographed his first Broadway show with the production of "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" and continued to create memorable ballets, among them an all-male version of Jean Genet's "The Maids." In 1954, the in-demand Ross choreographed the musical sequences for the Broadway production of "House of Flowers" after providing similar duties on his first film, Oscar Hammerstein's African-American rendition of Bizet's classic opera, "Carmen Jones" (1954), starring Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge.
Ross made his first tentative steps toward directing for the screen with the made-for-TV movie, "Wonderful Town" (CBS, 1958), starring Rosalind Russell in a role she had originated on Broadway. The following year, Ross married prima ballerina Nora Kaye, who had coincidentally turned down the lead role in his "Caprichos" ballet several years earlier. Among other notable endeavors of the period, he staged the musical numbers for the Broadway smash hit "I Can Get It for You Wholesale" in 1963, the production often credited with making a star of a young Barbara Streisand. In the years to come, Ross and Streisand would work together several more times. Back in film, he provided choreography for such movies as U.K. director Peter Yates' musical-romance "Summer Holiday" (1963), prior to a dismal attempt at directing his first Broadway production, "Kelly," which closed after a single performance in 1965.
The turning point came when a sudden twist of fate led to Ross making his debut as a feature film director with "Goodbye, Mr. Chips" (1969), a musical remake of the 1939 classic. The warm reception to that film set his career as a movie director in motion, and soon producer Ray Stark - with whom he would work closely many more times - tapped Ross to direct the comedy, "The Owl and the Pussycat" (1970), starring Streisand in her first non-singing role. He hit his stride in the '70s with the delirious Woody Allen vehicle "Play It Again, Sam" (1972) - a Bogart homage based on Allen's play of the same title. Ross then deftly executed the wit contained in the Anthony Perkins-Stephen Sondheim script for the mystery, "The Last of Sheila" (1973). The cleverly-plotted whodunit - boasting a cast that included James Coburn, James Mason, Raquel Welch and Dyan Cannon - also marked Ross' debut as a feature film producer, a role he maintained for nearly all of the subsequent pictures he would helm.
Ross went on to direct Streisand once more in "Funny Lady" (1975), in which she reprised the role of comedian Fanny Brice, whom she had portrayed in 1968's "Funny Girl" as well as the earlier Broadway sensation of the same name. He later began what would be a string of five film (and two stage) collaborations with writer Neil Simon, with the screen adaptation of Simon's play "The Sunshine Boys" (1975), starring George Burns and Walter Matthau as a pair of bickering, retired vaudevillians. Ross garnered some of the best critical notices of his career for the Sherlock Holmes pastiche "The Seven Per-Cent Solution" (1976), in which the great detective (Nicol Williamson) matches wits with Sigmund Freud (Alan Arkin) as he attempts to cure Holmes of his addiction to cocaine.
Ross reached his creative high watermark the following year with a pair of films that would elevate him to elite director status in a one-two punch of critical and commercial success. Acting as co-producer, along with wife Nora Kaye and screenwriter Arthur Laurents, Ross returned to his roots in ballet with "The Turning Point" (1977), the story of two old friends and competitors in the world of dance (Shirley MacLaine and Anne Bancroft) who battle and bond over the affections of MacLaine's daughter. That same year he directed another Neil Simon offering, the box office hit "The Goodbye Girl" (1977). A romantic comedy about an unlucky-in-love single mother (Marsha Mason) and a neurotic struggling actor (Richard Dreyfuss), it charmed audiences as its titular theme song spent weeks on the radio charts. Combined, the two films earned a total of 16 nominations at that year's Academy Awards ceremony, including one for Ross as Best Director for "Turning Point," which, shockingly, failed to win any of the 11 awards it had been nominated for. Dreyfuss, however, wound up taking home the Best Actor Oscar for his role, while three of the five Best Actress nominees (MacLaine, Bancroft and Mason) were from Ross' two films.
Although Ross' output over the years that followed would not maintain that same level of brilliance and profitability, there were a few notable exceptions yet to come. Another Ross-Simon collaboration, "California Suite" (1978), was a star-studded, lightweight romantic comedy featuring such big names as Jane Fonda, Michael Caine, Walter Matthau, Bill Cosby and Maggie Smith. Two years later, he and Kaye, acting as producer, parlayed his earlier successes into the ambitious biopic "Nijinsky" (1980), the story of the legendary Russian dancer (George De La Peña) and his gradual descent into madness. Ross took an even bigger gamble with "Pennies from Heaven" (1981), a lavish musical fantasy starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters as star-crossed lovers desperate for love and happiness in Depression-era Chicago. Despite being well-received by the majority of critics, the unconventional narrative combined with Martin's against-type casting left audiences puzzled and the film at the bottom of the box office.
Following two more efforts with Simon - the unremarkable "I Ought to Be in Pictures" (1982) and "Max Dugan Returns" (1983) - Ross bounced back with yet another dance-themed project, "Footloose" (1984). Set in a small town where dancing is forbidden, the film made lead actor Kevin Bacon a star overnight, boasted a chart-topping soundtrack, and gave Ross his biggest commercial success in years. He returned a few years later with the popular Michael J. Fox comedy "The Secret of My Succe$s" (1987), a hit that only barely offset the vitriol directed at "Dancers" (1987). Another drama set in the world of ballet, "Dancers" starred Mikhail Baryshnikov and was dubbed one of the worst movies of the year by critic Roger Ebert. Far more devastating than any negative review, however, was the death of Ross' beloved wife, business partner and creative muse, Nora Kaye, who succumbed to cancer that year.
Ross enjoyed yet another triumph with "Steel Magnolias" (1989), a heartfelt ensemble drama starring Sally Field, Shirley MacLaine, Dolly Parton, Olympia Dukakis, Daryl Hannah and Julia Roberts. The film, credited with jump-starting Roberts' fledgling career, further cemented Ross' reputation as a director keenly attuned to female performers. His later directorial efforts included the largely overlooked films "My Blue Heaven" (1990), "True Colors" (1991) and "Undercover Blues" (1993). Ross displayed his facility with strong leading ladies one last time with his final feature, "Boys on the Side" (1995), a road trip melodrama starring Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore. Though he had begun production on a made-for-television remake of "The Magnificent Ambersons" (A&E, 2002), Ross' increasingly poor health forced him to drop out of the project soon after it had begun production. In early 2001, the ailing filmmaker divorced his second wife, socialite Lee Radziwill, the younger sister of Jacqueline Kennedy, who he had married in 1988. Ross died of heart failure on Oct. 9, 2001 in New York and, as per his wishes, was interred next to Kaye. He was 74 years old.
By Bryce Coleman
Filmography
Director (Feature Film)
Producer (Feature Film)
Dance (Feature Film)
Production Companies (Feature Film)
Director (Special)
Cast (Special)
Writer (Special)
Special Thanks (Special)
Cast (Short)
Life Events
1942
Stage debut as Third Witch in touring company of "Macbeth"
1950
Began choreography career with American Ballet Theatre
1951
First Broadway show as choreographer, "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn"
1954
Began directing musical numbers for Broadway shows (i.e., "House of Flowers")
1954
First film as choreographer, "Carmen Jones"
1955
Began writing and directing nightclub and cabaret acts, first for Eddie Albert and Margo and later Constance Bennett, Imogene Coca and Leslie Uggams, among others
1959
Resident choreographer with American Ballet Theatre
1960
Directed and choreographed the City Center revival of "Finian's Rainbow"
1962
Directed Barbara Streisand's show-stopping number as Miss Marmelstein in the Broadway musical "I Can Get It for You Wholesale"
1963
Choreographed the stage musical "Tovarich", starring Vivian Leigh
1964
First collaboration with Stephen Sondheim, staged the cult musical "Anyone Can Whistle"; book by Arthur Laurents
1965
Staged the musical numbers for "Do I Hear a Waltz?", based on Laurents' "The Time of the Cuckoo"; music by Richard Rodgers, lyrics by Sondheim
1966
Last Broadway show as choreographer, "The Apple Tree"
1968
Reunited with Streisand as choreographer and director of musical numbers for the film "Funny Girl"
1969
First film as director, the musical remake of "Goodbye Mr. Chips", starring Peter O'Toole
1970
Directed Streisand in her first non-musical role, "The Owl and the Pussycat"; first time as producer
1973
Helmed "The Last of Sheila", a mystery co-written by Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim
1975
First film adapted from a Neil Simon play, "The Sunshine Boys"
1975
Directed Streisand again in the film sequel "Funny Lady"
1976
Produced and directed the Sherlock Holmes pastiche "The Seven-Per-Cent Solution"
1977
Helmed Simon's "Chapter Two" on Broadway
1977
Had box-office hit with Simon's "The Goodbye Girl"
1977
Produced and directed "The Turning Point", starring Anne Bancroft, Shirley MacLaine and Mikhail Baryshnikov; film received 11 Oscar nominations including Best Picture and Best Director
1979
Directed Neil Simon's play "I Ought to Be in Pictures"
1981
Won critical acclaim but little box-office for the screen adaptation of "Pennies From Heaven"
1982
Helmed film version of "I Ought to Be in Pictures"
1983
Fifth and last (to date) film collaboration with Simon, "Max Dugan Returns"
1985
Staged a concert revival of the Stephen Sondheim-James Goldman musical "Follies" at Lincoln Center; production taped for broadcast on PBS in 1986
1987
Last film with Nora Kaye as producer, "Dancers"
1989
Scored a hit with film adaptation of Robert Harling's play "Steel Magnolias", featuring Sally Field, Dolly Parton and Shirley MacLaine
1991
Executive producer for "Soapdish", starring Sally Field
1993
Directed a Los Angeles production of "La Boheme" and a Dallas production of it the following year
1995
Produced and directed "Boys on the Side", eliciting three strong, appealing performances from Whoopi Goldberg, Mary-Louise Parker and Drew Barrymore
Videos
Movie Clip
Trailer
Family
Companions
Bibliography
Notes
Ross received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Cancer Society in 1993.
Ross has directed 12 actors to Oscar nominations with three, George Burns, Maggie Smith and Richard Dreyfuss winning the award.
"I think what I first related to in 'Boys' is the idea that there is no more conventional family as we knew it as children. I was struck by this band of desperately alone people who form a mutual support system. I made a conscious attempt to keep it as multi-ethnic as the society we live in." --Herbert Ross to Newsday, January 31, 1995.
